LANCELOT by Walker Percy

This is one of my ancient hardbacks (pub. 1977) and there is no entry about when I finished it the first time or where I bought the book. 

Finished Sa 8/21/21

Set on a classic New Orleans house that is a local historical site. Lancelot Lamar's wife has allowed a movie crew to film on the estate. A fierce hurricane is approaching and the the house is in disarray.

The man of the house notices a form that lists his daughter's blood type. He learns that he could not be the father of his daughter. He suspects that the director of the film is actually the father. 

He is relating his story to a friend/priest/psychiatrist named Percival who never really speaks.

From NY Times review:

"In Walker Percy's fourth novel, "Lancelot," a Southern gentleman confronts the decadence of America in the 1970's and is driven nearly insane by it. "I cannot tolerate this age," rants Lancelot Andrewes Lamar from his cell in a prison hospital in New Orleans. "I won't have it. . .the great whorehouse and fagdom of America. . . . I do not propose to live in Sodom or to raise my son and daughters in Sodom. . . . Millions agree with me and know that this age is not tolerable, but no one will act except the crazies and they are part of the age. The mad Mansons are nothing more than the spasm-orgasm of a dying world. We are only here to give it the coup de grâce. We shall not wait for it to fester and rot any longer. We will kill it."

Moving Making

New Orleans history

Hurricanes

Adultery

Madness

A link to Biblioklept. A comprehensive review of the novel.

https://biblioklept.org/2020/09/12/on-walker-percys-postmodern-gothic-novel-lancelot/

This is Walker Percy's fourth novel and I will keep an eye out for more by this author.