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The Abiding Mystery: A Profile of Walker Percy |
| Section: BOOK WORLD / WRITERS AND WRITING |
| Author: J.B. Cheaney |
| Publication:
The World & I Online |
| Issue Date: 2/1/2004 |
| Size: 3,584 Words, 21,739 Characters |
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The search is what anyone would undertake if he were not sunk in the everydayness of his own life. This morning, for example, I felt as if I had come to myself on a strange island. And what does such a castaway do? Why, he pokes around the neighborhood and doesn't miss a trick.
Thus does Binx Bolling instigate the action of Walker Percy's first novel, The Moviegoer. Unlike many existential heroes, Binx lives in a world that's not too bad. He earns good money in a job that makes few demands on him; he has no trouble getting dates and is continually meeting nice people. In spite of traumatic events that might have sent a less phlegmatic temperament around the bend, he remains agreeable. The only problem is that he's a dead man living in a dead world. Life is in the movies, where recognizable types play out old verities that used to be taught in church. But periodically Binx wakes up, like the castaway, to a strange and mysterious world. Everything may look the same, but he has changed. He's onto something. "Not to be onto something is to be in despair."
After encountering this character in more than one Percy novel, it's tempting to associate him with Percy himself, or at least to imagine the author's gently worn features and calm blue eyes in the face of Will Barrett or Dr. Tom More. He's like a friend who listens more than he talks, so pleasantly one may think he's in agreement. But then, a sideways glance or slight furrowing of brow raises the suspicion that he's listening on another level--perhaps, one might think, he's onto me. Highly possible, for Percy's abiding interest, which he acquired early and never abandoned, was the mystery at the heart of all human existence.
His own existence began auspiciously, on May 28, 1916, smack in the middle of a prominent southern family. His father, LeRoy, conducted a successful law practice in Birmingham, where he married Martha Susan Phinizy, who gave him three sons: Walker, LeRoy, and Phinizy. But tragedy struck in 1929, when Mr. Percy shot himself in the attic of the family home.
Such a shattering event must have affected the boys profoundly, especially the oldest. He never talked...
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... infinite mystery and the infinite delight, i.e., God. In fact I demand it. ... I don't see why anyone should settle for less than Jacob, who actually grabbed aholt of God and would not let go until God identified himself and blessed him."
Perhaps what a reader sees in Walker Percy's novels are the footprints and sand gouges of a lifelong wrestling match--which the author may well have won.
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Publication Details
(The World & I Online) |
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The World & I Online is a
comprehensive academic resource that encompasses a broad range of
articles by scholars and experts in the areas of Global Studies,
Liberal Arts, Fine & Applied Arts, General Science, and Spanish.
Originally published monthly in print as The World & I, our site
includes the complete contents since 1986 and continues to publish
a new issue online each month. |
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