Walker Percy is an establishment in modern southern literature. His novels, while roving in plot, are firmly set explorations of time and place, of people's actions and reactions. "Lancelot" is a quick-paced, at-times absurd read through the mind of one man in an insane asylu: it is Percy at his wittiest and most unguarded.

The reader is drawn in immediately, beckoned by Lancelot's call to 'come into my cell', a statement made to a psychiatrist-priest, but reads as if directed at the reader. Lancelot begins by regaling his old friend with stories of their shared youths, before moving into the gaps where they lost touch with each other - his marriages and children, his famous house Belle Isle, and the most important, the reason why he is in the "nuthouse". Lancelot's narrataive shifts rapidly between times, one minute focused on his most recent wife Margot before shifting almost with no transition to his first wife. The core of the story lies with Lancelot's discovery that his youngest daughter is not his and that his wife is still cheating on him. With her gang of movie friends filming at Bell Isle, Lancelot tries to find the evidence he needs to prove that Margot is unfaithful to him, and takes the solution to that problem in his own hands.

Readers of Walker Percy may be most familiar with "The Moviegoer" or other more popular titles. They may be surprised by the frankness of "Lancelot", the blunt observations and fantasies of its main character, and how graphic some of those observations and thoughts are. Yet this seeming departure is in keeping with the story at hand and with Lancelot's character. "Lancelot" is a thoroughly enjoyable novel, with several laugh-out-loud moments, with a somewhat ambiguous ending that will leave readers wanting to know more.

Percy's Lancelot draws on a thought from Kierkegaard that begins his book the Moviegoer (paraphasing), "The worst thing about being in despair is not knowing one is in despair." From his despair, Lancelot's anger and rage drive him on a quest for the Holy Grail of Evil that leads to ultimately great crimes. But, in his quest he discovers the truth about evil, that it is in fact a "nothing" because it exists only in relation to the good. However, the discovery of the "nothingness" of evil has grave consequences which Lancelot describes through much of the novel.
The dialgoue of Lancelot and Percival does a great job of showing that one's "character" is the sum total of his/her moral choices. Lancelot makes a choice for evil and reaps the consequences that spin him into moral chaos, while Percival (his friend the priest-psychiatrist) has chosen to follow the path of goodness. The book is a great comparison and contrast of the battle of good and evil that occurs in every one of us.

Reading Walker Percy's "Lancelot" is like strolling down a hospital corridor and trying not to look in the half-cracked doors where there are likely sites best unseen-but failing. Mr. Percy, who was one of the best writers in the last quarter of the 20th Century, took the quest motif from medieval literature-specifically the quest for the Holy Grail-and inverted it so that the quest now centers on finding the darkest evil, in order to prove that good exists beyond the abstract.

His main character, Lancelot, is the sole speaker in the book, the entire novel a refraction of his recovering memory, shattered by the horrific murders he committed as a reaction to the decaying morality and facile values here amplified by a Hollywood film crew and his adulterous wife. The only other character who exists in "real time" is Lancelot's lifelong friend, Perceval, now a Catholic priest, who serves a touchstone for the ranting Lancelot.

Both characters are either recovering or evolving, or both, from their encounters with life's vicissitudes. If there is a take home message, then it might be the value of staying aware and alert to one's self amidst the mind-numbing banality that rises to the surface of modern life.

Putting aside the story, theme, and plot, it's a pleasure to read "Lancelot" because of Mr. Percy's thoughtfully paced and measured prose and his slow revelation of character and motive. He turns out many brilliant, indelible phrases throughout the book, creating indelible images that linger long after the details of the story fade and blur.

Quite frankly, I found this the most difficult and least enjoyable of Percy's books.

Percy is at his usual cranky self, poking at the delusions of modern life and ridiculing our self-assurance in spite of the fact that we're all rather lost. Good questions are asked. What is love and is it real? Is secular liberalism or Christianity true? What does sex mean? How can we escape boredom? Is life just some cosmic joke?

What is missing in Lancelot, in my opinion, is the sly humour found in The Second Coming or Love in the Ruins. Lancelot is a departure from Percy's typical protagonist, not because he is some crazy, libidinal loner who concocts an apocalyptic scheme to prove some cosmic point (because all of Percy's protagonists fit that bill), but because he isn't particularly funny. Lancelot lacks the sense that the world is bigger than himself, and is so serious that he rarely cracks a joke. His soliloquies, therefore, end up as overly explicit narratives concerning other humourless characters. This is especially true of the play within the play --- the movie making subplot which gets a little self-referential (after all, isn't this the most cinematic of Percy's novels?).

Still, enjoy Percy's craftsmanship, for there are far too few of his novels to be too fussy. What else is a crazy, libidinal, apocalyptic loner to do?

This novel is wonderfully written. Walker Percy has quite a unique way of expressing thought in the English language. Unfortunately, unique does not always mean well done. In the case of Walker Percy, however, this novel is a masterpiece of prose.

The first couple of pages take the reader into the mind of a man (Lancelot) at an insane asylum who is recollecting his crimes against his now dead wife. Percy uses Lancelot as a foil to pose many questions regarding our humanity and morality.

For example, what is the sexual act? Why should it mean anything other than a biological act between two humans? What is it that causes man to be so grievously injured by adultery if the act is nothing but biology? Lancelot ponders these questions throughout the novel as he talks to his childhood friend who has become a priest. Percy gives no answers except to demonstrate through Lancelot that Lancelot's answers are lacking. Lancelot's answers form no moral basis.

The story moves quickly as Lancelot recalls the events leading up to his crime. To that end, the clipped pace of the narrative suits the urgency of the action.

The reader will understand just what he/she is getting in this novel within the first 20 pages. I recommend it highly, but do issue a caution that there is some quite honest dialogue in the novel that includes a fair amount of profanity. Though probably necessary to develope the character, some may be offended.

Purchase the book and enjoy modern literature at its best.