One of Percy's Best
There are number of "serious" themes which re-occur in Percy's books: the value of life and the seeming rush of society to devalue it, Catholicism, the mystery of male-female relationships, "heavy sodium" in the water, and of course the South and her enduring troubles. But none of these really matter, as his work is so engrossing and fun even if you don't care a whit about any of these high-minded subjects. The charachters are so delightful, the progress of the events so interesting that you don't notice that the narrative has been invented by the author - it seems inevitable that the story should evolve in the manner that it does, regadless of the nuttiness of what happens.
It also seems that Percy although he became a "Great Writer", managed to not take himself over seriously, which would have been a crying shame, beacuse any dissolution of the author's farcical and irreverant wit would have been a tragedy.
This book is pretty hard to descibe. Perhaps it could be said that is is a fantasy-tragedy taking place in the near future. The survival of society is (as usual) dependent on one Dr. Thomas More (a bit overly subtle?) and his confres/girlfriends. It's a bit like a literary action novel, but like most good art, defies categorization.
