From Library Journal
Ciuba's theme is Percy's religious and artistic "apocalyptic vision": a fictional world of isolated searchers who detect the end of their accustomed mechanical and abstract worlds, often try to escape this end, but, in confronting their catastrophe, find an ambiguous, open-ended renewal. "The Apocalypse of John is the story of all Percy's stories," Ciuba contends. An opening essay expounding this thesis is followed by chapters that trace the revelation-ruin-renewal pattern, emphasizing the religious over the literary, in individual works (the unpublished early novel "The Grammercy Winner," plus The Moviegoer , The Last Gentleman , Love in the Ruins , Lancelot , The Second Coming , The Thanatos Syndrome ). The method is extended plot summary, with little extended quotation, highlighting the basic pattern. Repetitious and dreary, this is an arid critical performance that scarcely moves beyond its initial essay.
- Richard Kuczkowski, Dominican Coll., Blauvelt, N.Y.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- Richard Kuczkowski, Dominican Coll., Blauvelt, N.Y.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
