The Last Gentleman: A Novel [Paperback]

Walker Percy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 4, 1999

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Brilliant...It shimmers with the chaste and civilized ornaments of irony, understatement, and compassion." --Time

From the Publisher

"Brilliant...it shimmers with the chaste and civilized ornaments of irony, understatement, and compassion." --Time "Splendid...a beautifully textured novel...a distinguished work of art." --New York Times Book Review

"Lovely and brilliant...a highly whimsical kind of picaresque tale that puts one in mind of both Faulkner and Canneau." --Joyce Carol Oates, The Nation

"Breaks your heart in the midst of laughter." --Philadelphia Inquirer

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Picador; 1 edition (September 4, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312243081
• ISBN-13: 978-0312243081
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #237,830 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Walker Percy (1916-1990) was one of the most prominent American writers of the twentieth century. Born in Birmingham, Alabama, he was the oldest of three brothers in an established Southern family that contained both a Civil War hero and a U.S. senator. Acclaimed for his poetic style and moving depictions of the alienation of modern American culture, Percy was the bestselling author of six fiction titles--including the classic novel The Moviegoer (1961), winner of the National Book Award--and fifteen works of nonfiction. In 2005, Time magazine named The Moviegoer one of the best English-language books published since 1923.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Last Gentleman: What it means to pass from death to life, August 19, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Last Gentleman (Mass Market Paperback)

Marooned in New York City, displaced Southerner Will Barrett finds himself utterly abstracted from his world and himself. When a chance encounter in Central Park leads him to make the acquaintance of the Vaughts, fellow Southerners who knew his father, Will embarks on a journey that he hopes will tell him what he desperately needs to know. What does he need to know? If Will knew the answer to that, he wouldn't need the Vaughts, or the South, or the haunted memory of his father. Traversing the country, Will seeks the one man he believes will tell him what to do. Percy not only weaves a lush character study of lost Will, but realizes a profound meditation on the nature of identity, place, and home. Above all, like any good picaresque novel, Will's journey is not so much about the end, but about what he discovers along the way. However, as a testament to Percy's imagination and probity, Will's final destination provides nothing less than utter revelation. I closed this book and jumped out of bed immediately, my breath coming in gulps as I absorbed and processed what Walker Percy had taught me with such love, patience, beauty and truth.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A pilgrimage of observation, February 21, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Last Gentleman (Modern Library) (Hardcover)

Will Barrett, often bemused, confused, and having the uncanny ability to take on the characteristics of others to fit in as needed, seeks the meaning of life through his telescope (his powers of observation as well as a literal telescope), and a journey prompted by a girl he spys on in Central Park. While Will feels lost to himself, struggling with modern morality, the "new" South, and his family history, those he meets on his often humorous journey from New York back to the South, and finally, the new frontier of the West, often mistake him as the salvation to ease their own paths. Walker Percy is the master of fusing philosopy, religion, and an examination of the pitfalls in modern life with humor and storytelling.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A characterization of the human condition, June 26, 2000

By 

Blue Six (New York City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Last Gentleman: A Novel (Paperback)

Deceptively meandering at first, slow to take root in the mind, Percy's 'The Last Gentleman' will reward persistent readers with an egrossing and entertaining characterization of the human condition. Will Barrett is the literary everyman who is never happy when things are pleasant, never satisfied at the feast, never more invigorated than when his contemporaries feel hopeless. And he doesn't have any idea why. A richly sympbolic telescope brings him into an encounter with a lovely young woman, a dying youth, a pornographic and incompetent doctor and a 'mean as hell' nun - all in the same family. While Barrett travels with this crew and ponders the unanswerable questions that continue to plague him, he becomes aware that the sick youth's 'salvation' may be 'up to' him. This is a skillful novel with elusive, eclectic characters surrounding a young protagonist whose only crime is an honest search for the truth, so that his life will take on some real meaning. The scene where Barrett converses with the nun while she feeds viscera to a bird of prey is particularly insightful and stimulating. A meaty, complex, thinking-person's novel.