Walker Percy's Second Novel

But the third of his that I've read. First there was "The Second Coming", read with, of all things, a church group. (Hint: the title is metaphorical! Yes, we knew that before we read it, but when we bought our copy and told the bookstore clerk we would be reading it with a church group, he told us he didn't think we'd like it very much.)

Next was "The Moviegoer", Percy's first novel, which I read in New Orleans, where the story takes place. There is no better way to read a novel. I had a little trouble discerning the message of the story but finally settled in and am glad to have read it.

So what made "Love In The Ruins" third? In keeping with my random reading habits, it was on my shelf, and the hardback first edition of "The Last Gentleman" that I picked up 14 years ago for $3 at a book sale at a federal courthouse just wasn't grabbing me. Plus, I somehow suspected that Ruins might have in it something of the science-fictionesque quality that I sensed might run through some Percy novels.

I think I made a good selection. This isn't the kind of book that's constructed for excerpting, and I'm not much on traditional literary reviews of novels, having spent most of my reading life in the nonfiction arena. But I did commit a few teen years to science fiction, and Ruins delivered in that respect, though I'm quite sure that those turned off by the "sci fi" genre wouldn't categorize Ruins that way. Let's just say I was able to identify with the narrator in a way I hadn't with other Percy characters. Or at least I could see that, without a relatively clear understanding of the nature of reality and "why God put us here anyway", life is pretty pointless.