Lancelot A Novel eBook Walker Percy
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“A modern knight-errant on a quest after evil; grotesque, convincing and chilling.” —The New York Times Book Review
Fed up with the excesses of the 1970s, Lancelot Andrews Lamar, a liberal lawyer and distinguished member of the New Orleans gentry, is determined to stop the modern world’s ethical collapse. His quest begins with his wife—an actress who he suspects has been cheating on him for years. Though he initially plans only to gather proof of her infidelity, Lancelot quickly descends into a fog of obsession. And as he crosses the line from sanity into madness, he will try once and for all to purify the world or destroy it in the attempt.
Mesmerizing and unforgettable, Lancelot is a masterful story of one man’s collision with the follies of modern culture, and a thought-provoking look at the nature of good and evil.
Lancelot A Novel eBook Walker Percy
I was first introduced to Walker Percy at much too young an age, as I look back on it now. After hearing Charles Colson recommend "The Thanatos Syndrome" as a great "summer read," I happened to run across the book at my local library, so I decided to give it a go. I was probably not more than 15 at the time. Also, I was a homeschooled, church kid. Those of you who've read "Thanatos" can probably imagine, then, what a shock that book was. I had no idea, at the time, that Percy was a Catholic writer or that the driving theme of his work is the distressed ennui of "modern" humanity. Without any "context," I found the book immensely perplexing and deeply disturbing. However, I also remember feeling/thinking in some half-formed way that what I was reading was 1) deeply "real" in the sense of true-to-life-in-the-modern-world and 2) was critically important, though I couldn't have articulated how.Now, I suppose in the name of fairness, I should note that after finishing "Thanatos," I didn't pick up another Percy book. Perhaps the reason is that I read fiction for relaxation and, if you pay close attention to Walker Percy, there's not much "relaxing" about his insight into the amoral morass of modern society.
However, picking up "Lancelot," I felt very much like I was returning to the same world as "Thanatos," a world where the oft-celebrated hyper-sexualization of society has, instead of liberating us, has driven us to the brink of self-destructive insanity. Lancelot Andrewes Lamar's self-styled "confession" betrays the absolute cognitive failure that has accompanied modernity's rejection of moral authority, typified in this fictitious member of that decaying Louisiana gentry class Percy depicts so well…educated, wealthy, and slowly coming unhinged. That the book is narrated in first-person puts the reader in the very uncomfortable position of being Lance's confessor.
All that I can say is that Lance is a beguiling figure who draws you in. He's been under treatment for an entire year, after all, and is, by all accounts, cured and psychically whole. This final recitation of his family trauma clearly is meant to mark his final healing. However, ever-so-slowly, cracks begin to appear in the façade of Lancelot's sanity. By the end of the story, it appears that he is victim of that most dangerous of all delusions, a rationalized one and, furthermore, by our own sympathy with his story, we, the readers, are implicated in the perversity of his thinking.
There are few writers that I've found who can depict the moral bankruptcy of modernity with as much power as Walker Percy. He has this subtle way of turning the reader's eye inward, moving us gently toward self-reflection rather than judgment. There's been a nearly 25-year-long hiatus in my journey with Walker Percy, but I have a sense that, over the years, I've grown into his works and can see now, with frightening clarity, the monsters that lurk in the shadows of our best selves and societies.
Readers of Walker Percy, beware! Here is a man of deep moral insight and conviction who cuts straight to diseased heart of all that is wicked in our world. And he doesn't have to be "preachy"; he just lets us speak for ourselves and our own words betray our hearts…
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Lancelot A Novel eBook Walker Percy Reviews
I really enjoyed the elliptical nature of the structure, an imprisoned man having a one-sided conversation, recalling his very unhappy life, leading up to why he is now imprisoned. the story, and the narrator in particular presents dark, compelling, and thought provoking ideas related to one's values, morality, and ability to adapt to societal changes.
Loved this book. Gorgeously written, peppered with paragraphs that leave you reeling with experiential recognition, things you've always thought about, yet in ways you've never considered. Weird and surreal at times, crystal clear at others. It's going to stick with me for a long, long time.
When I first began this book I knew I was reading something by a truly talented writer. Walker Percy's prose are so different, so elegant compare to the "story tellers" I have been reading. Lancelot is also different in that the entire book is a monologue by Lancelot Lamar to a friend who has become a priest while Lancelot is in a mental hospital. As I read more of the book I began to realize that I could not just read this book on the surface. There is more that is going on then just the actual story, bringing me back to those high school and college English classes. The ending doesn't wrap the story up in neat bow and conclude everything. In fact I reread the last chapter just to make sure I didn't miss anything.
I don't think I could take a constant diet of Walker Percy but it is certainly a good change of pace from mysteries and historical fiction.
This book is once again an example of Percy' s beautiful prose that is a pleasure to read on every page. I call this one different from the others I've read because the protagonist finds himself nearly out of control, institutionalized, at the story's opening, while most of Percy' s protagonists carefully plan their every move. This book is also much more overtly sexual than his others in terms of literal description.
It is a story of a man, Lance, with an ambitious wife who moves from one relationship to another to achieve her goals. He allows himself to be used and marginalized into a pathetic routine of a role as the master of an old southern mansion, while his wife carves out a new career as a movie actress using the mansion as the setting for one of her films. He is jolted out of his half-drunken stupor when he discovers by accident that his seven year old daughter is not his, but was fathered by his wife's movie director. At that time of discovery, he does begin his careful planning of a way to resolve his messy predicament that results in the destruction of the mansion and the deaths of a number of his antagonists.
The story is actually told in flashback from Lance' s cell, using a real or imaginary alter ego, Percival (Percy?), who seems to play the role of a conscience. There is some question at the end of the story as to whether Lance's life will resume in a happy new chapter. This reader hopes that it will.
This is often cited by persons who read Percy as their least favorite novel. While it is probably not his masterpiece, some of his greatest poetical passages and pictures of real life in America and the affluent Deep South are in this book. He hits the nail right on the head many times in dialogue and descriptions of places. There is MUCH profundity in this novel, and many maxims or quotable lines. This is why Percy was so disappointed at the somewhat negative reception by critics. It’s possibly his deepest novel, even as it is oversexed and ridiculous in parts.
I was first introduced to Walker Percy at much too young an age, as I look back on it now. After hearing Charles Colson recommend "The Thanatos Syndrome" as a great "summer read," I happened to run across the book at my local library, so I decided to give it a go. I was probably not more than 15 at the time. Also, I was a homeschooled, church kid. Those of you who've read "Thanatos" can probably imagine, then, what a shock that book was. I had no idea, at the time, that Percy was a Catholic writer or that the driving theme of his work is the distressed ennui of "modern" humanity. Without any "context," I found the book immensely perplexing and deeply disturbing. However, I also remember feeling/thinking in some half-formed way that what I was reading was 1) deeply "real" in the sense of true-to-life-in-the-modern-world and 2) was critically important, though I couldn't have articulated how.
Now, I suppose in the name of fairness, I should note that after finishing "Thanatos," I didn't pick up another Percy book. Perhaps the reason is that I read fiction for relaxation and, if you pay close attention to Walker Percy, there's not much "relaxing" about his insight into the amoral morass of modern society.
However, picking up "Lancelot," I felt very much like I was returning to the same world as "Thanatos," a world where the oft-celebrated hyper-sexualization of society has, instead of liberating us, has driven us to the brink of self-destructive insanity. Lancelot Andrewes Lamar's self-styled "confession" betrays the absolute cognitive failure that has accompanied modernity's rejection of moral authority, typified in this fictitious member of that decaying Louisiana gentry class Percy depicts so well…educated, wealthy, and slowly coming unhinged. That the book is narrated in first-person puts the reader in the very uncomfortable position of being Lance's confessor.
All that I can say is that Lance is a beguiling figure who draws you in. He's been under treatment for an entire year, after all, and is, by all accounts, cured and psychically whole. This final recitation of his family trauma clearly is meant to mark his final healing. However, ever-so-slowly, cracks begin to appear in the façade of Lancelot's sanity. By the end of the story, it appears that he is victim of that most dangerous of all delusions, a rationalized one and, furthermore, by our own sympathy with his story, we, the readers, are implicated in the perversity of his thinking.
There are few writers that I've found who can depict the moral bankruptcy of modernity with as much power as Walker Percy. He has this subtle way of turning the reader's eye inward, moving us gently toward self-reflection rather than judgment. There's been a nearly 25-year-long hiatus in my journey with Walker Percy, but I have a sense that, over the years, I've grown into his works and can see now, with frightening clarity, the monsters that lurk in the shadows of our best selves and societies.
Readers of Walker Percy, beware! Here is a man of deep moral insight and conviction who cuts straight to diseased heart of all that is wicked in our world. And he doesn't have to be "preachy"; he just lets us speak for ourselves and our own words betray our hearts…
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