Michael Perry

press release: Michael Perry discovered the great French essayist Michel de Montaigne courtesy of a kidney stone. After passing “the Devil’s own gobstopper,” Perry began researching renal calculi and discovered that Montaigne—the 16th century inventor of the essay form—had documented his own kidney stone experience. From this oddball introduction, Perry plunged headlong into the works of Montaigne. The raw, vulnerable, and hilarious result is Montaigne in Barn Boots: An Amateur Ambles through Philosophy.