Present Epithetical Books The Last Gentleman
| Title | : | The Last Gentleman |
| Author | : | Walker Percy |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Deluxe Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 416 pages |
| Published | : | September 4th 1999 by Picador USA (first published 1966) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Literature. Novels. American. Southern. Classics |
Walker Percy
Paperback | Pages: 416 pages Rating: 3.87 | 2186 Users | 158 Reviews
Commentary Toward Books The Last Gentleman
Will Barrett is a 25-year-old wanderer from the South living in New York City, detached from his roots and with no plans for the future—until the purchase of a telescope sets off a romance and changes his life forever.Publisher: Spring Arbor/Ingram.
Point Books In Pursuance Of The Last Gentleman
| Original Title: | The Last Gentleman |
| ISBN: | 0312243081 (ISBN13: 9780312243081) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Literary Awards: | National Book Award Finalist for Fiction (1967) |
Rating Epithetical Books The Last Gentleman
Ratings: 3.87 From 2186 Users | 158 ReviewsCriticism Epithetical Books The Last Gentleman
Walker Percy is one of the great novelists of the South and is at his best when he describes quotidian life there. The protagonist, whom Percy shapes as an engineer, is the personification of the Deep South. The engineer is a Princeton man with a high-powered telescope living in New York City with episodes of amnesia or "fugues," which disorient him. This poor man takes a job caring for a desperately sick young man named Jamie and falls in love with his sister, Kitty. Jamie is receivingThis is my 2nd try at Walker Percy, the first being The Moviegoer, which won the 1962 National Book Award for Fiction and was on TIME's list of the 100 best English language novels since 1923, and both have been 1 stars for me. As with The Moviegoer, the book is mostly existential nonsense. I can handle no plot if the dialogue is profound enough, but here it's not. I should have stopped with The Moviegoer.
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Just went back through this a third time in prep to lead our book club through it at our next meeting. It just gets better and better with age. All of Percy's work feels more or less prophetic, as humanity has still not fully come to terms with the dislocation of the individualized, technological society birthed by WWII. The "New South", the old South, the sexual revolution, cultural Christianity, and so much more comes under his withering eye.
Walker Percy, a much-honored novelist, might be best known in some circles for his noble effort to get the great "Confederacy of Dunces" published after its author, John Kennedy O'Toole, committed suicide. Percy knows great writing when he sees it, and his 1966 novel,"The Last Gentleman," features some great writing.Like other Percy novels ("The Second Coming" and "The Thanatos Syndrome" come to mind), "The Last Gentleman" is not easy stuff. It features a cast of largely unlikable characters,
I am a Percy addict, I admit it, and a vein full of this didn't help. Percy's novels are like non-fiction disguised as fiction, which I think throws a lot of people. He has ideas, and fiction is a vehicle for them. But just like with O'Connor, you can read his books without having a clue about the author's ideas and still love them for the literature they are. Percy's turns of phrase alone make his stuff worth reading. And boy, did this one get me. Starts out like a quaint, good-ish book,
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