PILGRIM IN THE RUINS

Rating:
Summary: The Depressed Wayfarer
Review: I was quite pleased when this biography came out because I had been a fan of Dr. Percy for many years. I'd read through his fiction and nonfiction several times, including various interviews, literary criticism, and minutiae -- in short, anything connected with Percy. Had I pursued that course, I very likely would have written a dissertation on Percy.

So I was even happier to discover that Mr. Tolson did a fine job with his subject. He examines the books in the context of Percy's life and in a way that is friendly without becoming overly academic. Percy was a private man who didn't have much use for biographies or biographers. Fortunately, Tolson respected his wishes by neither prying too much nor engaging in the sort of amateur psychologizing which is all too common in modern pathography. He proves a sensitive reader and biographer.

Having said that, there's a strain in Percy's life and work that most biographers and critics have missed. They correctly indicate the significance of alcohol and suicide in the illustrious Percy lineage. But they examine that significance only in a metaphysical way rather than a physical (biological) way, that is, in a psychological way rather than a psychiatric way. Why did Dr. Percy never seek psychotherapy or some kind of medical treatment for his clinical depression? What sorts of things might have interfered with that search?

I found Pilgrim in the Ruins to be an enjoyable look at Dr. Percy and his work. It is well-grounded in southern history, Percy's family history, the works themselves and how they fit into the larger currents of American literature. Even the reader who is a stranger to Percy will find much to appreciate here.

Rating:
Summary: On Target . . .
Review: Percy was never terribly anxious to talk about himself, so it was a joy to read Tolson's well-researched account after devouring all of Percy's books. Where Percy has left only hints, Tolson delves more deeply to uncover Percy's troubled childhood which was redeemed in his teenage years by his Uncle Will, author of Lanterns on the Levee. If you read Walker Percy, you undoubtedly find you want to know more and more about the enigmatic genius. Tolson's biography of him fills in a lot of gaps.

Rating:
Summary: A Biography Worthy of Its Subject
Review: This book is one of the finest I have ever read. I don't say that lightly; I have read my share of books and devoured anything written by or about Percy.

Tolson is worthy of the novelist whose life he portrays. He writes beautifully and takes the reader through the many periods of Percy's life. The biography is particulalry strong with the formative influences that shaped the novelist's life and world view-- the suicides, the depressions, both the "Old" and "New" South, his Uncle Will, Shelby Foote, modern America, religion, race, etc.

The book impacted me more than any other I have read, and I would not be the same person today without it. There can be no finer praise for a work; 5 stars seems so insufficient.

How fortunate we are Percy had Tolson as a biographer.

Rating:
Summary: A Biography Worthy of Its Subject
Review: This book is one of the finest I have ever read. I don't say that lightly; I have read my share of books and devoured anything written by or about Percy.

Tolson is worthy of the novelist whose life he portrays. He writes beautifully and takes the reader through the many periods of Percy's life. The biography is particulalry strong with the formative influences that shaped the novelist's life and world view-- the suicides, the depressions, both the "Old" and "New" South, his Uncle Will, Shelby Foote, modern America, religion, race, etc.

The book impacted me more than any other I have read, and I would not be the same person today without it. There can be no finer praise for a work; 5 stars seems so insufficient.

How fortunate we are Percy had Tolson as a biographer.