Customer Reviews (2)

Not "The Last Gentleman" but truly "Lost in the Cosmos"
I too wasted time with this book (money also, unfortunately). I have to agree with the previous reviewer's comments, particularly in not seeing why Quinlan chose to write this sorry book. He lets it slip in a footnote that he was once a seminarian, and I strongly suspect he still has some "issues" regarding the Catholic Church in particular and religious life in general. There is such an obvious bias throughout this book against religious faith that the author ultimately convicts himself rather than Walker Percy, as he attempts to do. While he feigns openness and balance early in the book, soon his condescending, dismissive, and arrogant attitude comes through in ever heavier tones. There is such an angry, bitter undercurrent thoughout the book that it led me to suspect some personal bias, even jealousy, directed at Mr. Percy. Perhaps it is the bitterness of one who has lost his faith towards someone who clearly maintained his throughout his life. And it may be that a faith with the degree of intellectual rigor of Percy's is the most irritating of all. His conclusion is most telling: there can be no more Catholic novelists because "there is no such goal toward which an intellectually informed and honest human being can now aspire."
Quinlan relishes pointing out "the trouble with Walker Percy's faith" and suggests that his appeal in the future will be similar to that of the New Agers, to "some of his less discriminating readers." The tone throughout this book is so persistently against Percy and Catholicism that it is easy to dismiss the author's rantings by the end of the book. Quinlan's lack of true credibility to write this book becomes obvious. While posing as a fellow wayfarer, he reveals himself as a cynical, intellectually arrogant bore. Anyone who has abandoned "the search" should not attempt to evaluate an author like Walker Percy.This, alone, is perhaps the only (inadvertently) positive quality of this book: it is easily dismissed, forgettable, and does not leave any lasting impression on the reader (other than the author's bitterness). Quite the exact opposite of any of Walker Percy's writings.

A Disappointment
I borrowed this book from the library hoping that it would provide better insight into the mind of the man I call "My Mentor From Beyond the Grave."To the author's credit, he states in the Introduction that he is not a believer in the Catholic faith, but that he hopes he can be considered one of Percy's "wayfarers."Based on what I know of what Percy said about his concept of the wayfarer, Quinlan's hope is in vain.

I don't quite know why Quinlan wrote this book.He seems more concerned with avoiding the opporobrium of his fellow academics than writing an insightful treatment of Percy's life and work.I grew weary of the author's characterization of the Catholic faith as a source of easy answers for people who have need of "structure" in their lives.To put things way over the top, he even "outs" Percy's Uncle (author of "Lanterns on the Levee") on flimsy evidence at best.

I suggest that those who share Percy's convictions on Life's Big Questions look elsewhere for helpful insights into the mind of this extraordinary man, and avoid Quinlan's facile trivialization of religious belief and the quest for Truth.

I'm just glad I didn't spend any money on the book. ... Read more

Product Description
This valuable and informative book is a study of Percy's five novels in the context of his southern and American literary sources and his tragic personal history. Though Percy has emphasized mainly his European existential influences, his highly allusive novels echo his tragic early years in the South, as well as his ambivalent relationship with his adoptive father William Alexander Percy and his awareness of such writers as Twain, Hemingway, and Warren.

This perceptive study examines Percy's novels in the light of psychoanalytic theory, philosophy, and literary analysis. The author finds that Percy's fiction has been shaped as much by what Percy rejected as by what he embraced.

This book is "admirable first of all for its good taste. It respects Walker Percy's privacy. . . . It offers fair readings, generous readings, and ultimately new and rewarding readings." --Lewis Lawson ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Sovereign Wayfaring at its Best
It's a rare and beautiful event when two scientific intelligences engage in genuinely truthful dialogue about vitally important matters which impact daily life.Fortunately that's just what lies in store for any sovereignwayfaring reader of Thief of Peirce.At least that was what I discoveredthroughout this smooth-flowing collection of correspondence betweenessayist/novelist Walker Percy, and philosopher Kenneth Ketner.

I've readand re-read so many portions of this book, making margin notes galore, andreflecting on my own view of the subjects on which these two gents exchangeideas and thoughts.So much goes on in Thief that any list of the bestcontent would end up including the whole book anyway; although the mostused portion of my copy is Ketner's essay, Novel Science.

So, if you'relooking to gain insight into Percy's novels, and Ketner's new sense ofautobiography in His Glassy Essence (written before the Reagan bio, as amatter of fact), then don't miss this particular essay in Thief.

But,don't take my word for it --- be Percy's sovereign wayfarer and discoverthe beauty of this book on your own.After reading it you'll likely be aThief of Peirce yourself. ... Read more

Product Description
This reproduction was printed from a digital file created at the Library of Congress as part of an extensive scanning effort started with a generous donation from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.The Library is pleased to offer much of its public domain holdings free of charge online and at a modest price in this printed format.Seeing these older volumes from our collections rediscovered by new generations of readers renews our own passion for books and scholarship. ... Read more

Product Description
Eudora Welty and Walker Percy were friends but very different writers, even though both were from the Deep South and intensely interested in the relation of place to their fiction. This work explores in each the concept of home and the importance of home to the homo viator ("man on his way"), and anti-idealism and anti-romanticism.

The differences between Welty and Percy and in their fiction were revealed in the habits of their lives. Welty spent her life in Jackson, Mississippi, and was very much a member of the community. Percy was a wanderer who finally settled in Covington, Louisiana, because it was, as he called it, a "noplace." The author also asserts that Percy somewhat envied Welty and her stability in Jackson, and that for him, place was such a nagging concern that it became a personal problem to him as homo viator. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

last gentleman
LOvely and brilliant.A highly whimsical kind of picaresque tale that outs one in mind of both Faulkner and Canneau ... Read more

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To find more information on Rowman & Littlefield titles, please visit us at www.rowmanlittlefield.com. ... Read more

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Product Description
Hawkins explores traditional and contemporary ways grace has been handled in literature. Through these novels and short stories, Hawkins highlights the impoverishment of spirit and imagination when religious language fails us. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Uses Flannery O'Connor's work to illustrate how she, Walker Percy and Iris Murdoch wrote for their "unbelieving audience"...
Hawkins uses the four chapters which comprise this book to focus on the "central loss of Christianity in Western culture" and what this loss has meant to the literary art produced by Flannery O'Connor, Walker Percy, and Iris Murdoch.

Contends that the goal of these three authors -- just as it was for the writers of such classics as Canterbury Tales, the Faerie Queene, Paradise Lost, and The Pilgrim's Progress -- is to inspire readers to turn from wickedness "to love and do good."

Examines problems the three writers encounter as they continue in this tradition of "bringing the reader to a new state of consciousness and self-awareness." Then, discusses, in this context, O'Connor's realization that "she had to discover a new language of grace in order to confront the reader with the experience of God."

Outlines O'Connor's "strategy for approaching her audience," describes her "traditional Christian sensibility," and focuses on the context within which she considered her fiction realistic. Then, discusses her use of the bizarre and the grotesque, along with distortion and exaggeration to reach unbelieving readers; her use of biblical allusion; and her successful reliance upon her "narrational voice to suggest the ultimate meaning of her stories." Refers to the role of the narrator in John Huston's 1979 film version of Wise Blood, "Parker's Back," "Revelation," and "The Artificial Nigger," followed by a careful reading of "A Good Man Is Hard to Find."

Devotes a chapter each to Walker Percy and Iris Murdoch, using O'Connor's work to illustrate and compare how each of the three worked to communicate with their "unbelieving audience." Suggests that Flannery O'Connor provides readers with "a set of critical terms and fictional strategies" to better understand how she and other Christian writers use "clarity and mystery" to bridge the gap between themselves and their readers.

R. Neil Scott / Middle Tennessee State University

a way bit over my head
I am sure it wonderful book, but it just was to much for my liking at this point in time in my life. ... Read more