Reading Walker Percy's Novels

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Walker Percy considered novels the strongest vehicles for popularizing great ideas among a broad readership. Near the end of his life, he confided to one interviewer that if he could do it all over again, he would have made films for the same purpose. But despite his egalitarian approach and popular appeal, his ideas are not always as easily accessible. Drawing from the work of European existentialists and combining it with language acquisition theory and modern Catholic thought, Percy's fiction can offer both an entertaining read and an intellectual head rush. This book acts as a bridge between those two experiences and guides readers perhaps less familiar with Sartre, Camus, Kierkegaard, or Dante through Walker's many novels. Diving into his repertoire, author Jessica Hooten Wilson skillfully addresses the historical and political contexts, literary and philosophical allusions, as well as provides insight into the creation and reception of several individual works including The Moviegoer, The Last Gentleman, Love in the Ruins, Lancelot, The Second Coming, The Thanatos Syndrome, and Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book.