Scan barcode
suvata's review
3.0
Continuing my TBR project:
This is one the oldest selection on my TBR list - Originally added August 29, 2017.
This is one the oldest selection on my TBR list - Originally added August 29, 2017.
ellahedman's review against another edition
dark
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.25
I think Percy is an excellent writer. He is quite dark, and his questions spiral in this book but it ultimately encourages self- reflection, and in that way, it is, as the title suggests, the last self help book. I am excited to come back to this book in two years or so. It is pitched a little higher than my current reading level and I struggled with it. Hopefully next time I will find it equally challenging, but more so in the department of reflection and less in me working to understand what he is insinuating.
eely225's review
4.0
This isn't an easy book. To a degree, you can say that it hasn't aged well. It's very much a product of the mid-80s and the tone and format lampoon a lot of what was typical in that time but seems almost foreign now. It's hard to really take in an anti-self-help book when the self-help book is so much less common than it was then. In addition, his language and references are very much tied to their time, so that can be a little dull for someone, like myself, born after the book was written.
But that doesn't really affect the book's content. There is a lot here. Percy seems to be writing Kierkegaard for the modern age, trying to take the tradition of existentialist and Christian existentialist philosophy into a readable, current format. I'll admit, it's a very scattershot affair. He incorporates so many different methods and genres in the book's many chapters that it's sometimes a little exhausting. But what you see is that he's trying to prod the reader by any means necessary. As the book's description states, this isn't a book that will give you answers but one that will provoke. As the invitation to draw someone (like myself, like us all) out of torpor and into existential questions, the book undoubtedly succeeds.
But that doesn't really affect the book's content. There is a lot here. Percy seems to be writing Kierkegaard for the modern age, trying to take the tradition of existentialist and Christian existentialist philosophy into a readable, current format. I'll admit, it's a very scattershot affair. He incorporates so many different methods and genres in the book's many chapters that it's sometimes a little exhausting. But what you see is that he's trying to prod the reader by any means necessary. As the book's description states, this isn't a book that will give you answers but one that will provoke. As the invitation to draw someone (like myself, like us all) out of torpor and into existential questions, the book undoubtedly succeeds.
jthhhhhhhh's review against another edition
5.0
This book has really been haunting me. Written in 1983 but extremely relevant today. I keep coming back to it again and again since I originally read it.
The thing is, it's a parody of a self-help book, but it offers all these really fascinating open-ended questions about science, religion, reality, self, relationships, language, morality, etc. that it actually DOES help me to think more deeply about how I relate to the world.
The thing is, it's a parody of a self-help book, but it offers all these really fascinating open-ended questions about science, religion, reality, self, relationships, language, morality, etc. that it actually DOES help me to think more deeply about how I relate to the world.
raskol's review against another edition
1.0
Capsule Review: Don't Read Walker Percy. Ever.
Longer Review: If somebody recommends this book (or any other of his books) to you, rest assured that that he will one day soon try to convince you that the Eagles really are rock n' roll. Afterwards, he will probably inflict some of his "poetry" on you. You know the kind of stuff I mean: four-line stanzas in ABAB that will inevitably rhyme the words "pain" with "insane," "soul" with "hole," "heart" with "apart," and "feel" with "unreal." Luckily, though, you will see this coming, and as soon as your friend/lover/spouse/relative/coworker/mutual or new acquaintance/etc. recommends this author to you, you can immediately make the decision forever to exclude him (or her) from your literary life. That's right: whenever he mentions some book he read, change the subject. Talk about the weather; fake a seizure, if necessary. For example, say your boss, Mr. When-I'm-in-My-Car-I-Rock-Out-to-The Best of Sting, has previously recommended to you a novel written by one Walker Percy (thus alerting you that all of his taste is in his mouth). Your boss then approaches you one morning and says, "Hey, Suzy, how are you? You know, I was rereading Anne Rice this weekend, and I thought of you, because, you know, you can read, and I thought you might enjoy it." At this point, casually announce that the sun has given you cancer and you no longer have time to read before you die. Watch him shut up.
(And yes, I've posted the exact same review for all the Walker Percy books I've been unfortunate enough to read. Percy's works aren't worth more than one original review. Besides, if you've read one of his books, you've read them all.)
Longer Review: If somebody recommends this book (or any other of his books) to you, rest assured that that he will one day soon try to convince you that the Eagles really are rock n' roll. Afterwards, he will probably inflict some of his "poetry" on you. You know the kind of stuff I mean: four-line stanzas in ABAB that will inevitably rhyme the words "pain" with "insane," "soul" with "hole," "heart" with "apart," and "feel" with "unreal." Luckily, though, you will see this coming, and as soon as your friend/lover/spouse/relative/coworker/mutual or new acquaintance/etc. recommends this author to you, you can immediately make the decision forever to exclude him (or her) from your literary life. That's right: whenever he mentions some book he read, change the subject. Talk about the weather; fake a seizure, if necessary. For example, say your boss, Mr. When-I'm-in-My-Car-I-Rock-Out-to-The Best of Sting, has previously recommended to you a novel written by one Walker Percy (thus alerting you that all of his taste is in his mouth). Your boss then approaches you one morning and says, "Hey, Suzy, how are you? You know, I was rereading Anne Rice this weekend, and I thought of you, because, you know, you can read, and I thought you might enjoy it." At this point, casually announce that the sun has given you cancer and you no longer have time to read before you die. Watch him shut up.
(And yes, I've posted the exact same review for all the Walker Percy books I've been unfortunate enough to read. Percy's works aren't worth more than one original review. Besides, if you've read one of his books, you've read them all.)
shalms's review against another edition
2.0
I wanted to love this book. Maybe that was the problem, because I decidedly didn't. It was written in a style I didn't care for at all -- too flip? I felt the style obscured what was good and worthwhile in the book. And there were a few gems.
I loved The Moviegoer, the only other book of his I have read.
But this, I conked out before the end, which is rare. I put it on my bookshelf, hoping that maybe someday I will come back to it with different, more appreciative eyes.
I loved The Moviegoer, the only other book of his I have read.
But this, I conked out before the end, which is rare. I put it on my bookshelf, hoping that maybe someday I will come back to it with different, more appreciative eyes.