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The Last Gentleman: A Novel [Paperback]

Walker Percy (Author)
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars An ample meal Oct 11 2001
By J. Gilmore
Format:Paperback
I just finished this book and wanted to get out a review while my memory was still fresh. I consumed The Last Gentleman in small doses because there was just so much. It's still settling but I think I'll have to re-read it anyhow. Where to begin? The engineer is an ideal narrater because he is such an excellent observer. That's what he does after all, views from afar, with a telescope even in the beginning of the story. He's not sure why he is where he is (did I mention that he's amnesiac) and in getting his bearings is by necesssity very keen in observing people and places. Yet despite the absurdity of his condition his actions remain plausable and despite being a dreamer he is at times the most grounded character in the novel.
What does the engineer observe? A confused, whimsical belle named Kitty who is his love, and the displaced family around her. Her con artist (in a benevolent way) of a father, her mystic, lewd brother Sutter and her mystic, martyr sister Val, her sickly brother Jamie, and finally her caretaker for a sister-in-law. In a odyssey of absurdity the engineer travels from New York City to Carolina and finally to New Mexico, facing irate Pennsylvanians and rioting students, even the police in his native town. He does so with his keen eye and lack of dishonesty, eventually untangling his love Kitty from the "loving" clutches of her sister-in-law and caring for his friend and Kitty's brother Jamie on his deathbed, leaving a wake of bewildered men and women. A great read that takes time to ingest, and who knows how long to digest.
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2.0 out of 5 stars Snoozin' on the Veranda Aug 26 2001
By Michael S. Mahoney
Format:Paperback
When they stay away from all those heavy Russians and super mopers like Kierkegaard, Southerners, as most everyone knows, have a special penchant for spinning a yarn. Now Mr. Percy is one intelligent man, a philosopher physician with an ear for the poetic line. Why he even championed a comic masterpiece, a one-off novel about a painfully obese medievalist with a rather pronounced disdain for gainful employment. We should all be eternally grateful for his decision to sit down with the manuscript of that gut buster. Unfortunately, the author's own works often slip into an existential coma. After an engaging opening, complete with a baby who emerges from a hurricane, The Last Gentleman gets downright tiresome and lumpy. When examining the conundrums of human freedom and will, Percy lacks the subtlety of the far superior storyteller Robert Penn Warren. In this instance, Percy's women are insufferably tedious, his men only slightly better. Mr. Vaught amuses in seersucker, but the protagonist, a nearly transparent figure known as the engineer, has the charm and presence of an expired june bug. He talks nonsense with a jumbled up girl or, in a fugue state, wanders around for days not knowing his name. After a while, you hope he'll wander across a busy freeway.
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2.0 out of 5 stars Southerner in a Strange Land July 4 2001
By JNeeley@mail.utexas.edu
Format:Paperback
This book had a good begining, and at first reminded me a little of Ellison's Invisible Man in reverse (an amnesiac Southern White trying to come to terms with the South). Soon, however, the book becomes entangled in the happenings of a strange southern family, and all coherence stops. Characters say one things, then turn around and say the opposite; they continualy talk about having adventures, but nothing ever comes of it. The pace of the novel begins to feel a lot like a traffic jam: false start, sudden stop, false start, sudden stop. It was much too much like real life in that respect for my liking.

I must confess I didn't finish the book. At page 291, lacking the desire to continue and realizing that reading the thing had become a chore, I skipped to the end, which didn't restore my faith any.

I know that Walker Percy can write a good story, but in the case of The Last Gentleman it seems that he didn't.

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Most recent customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars Walker Percy retells Dostoevsky
Walker Percy said that "The Last Gentleman" is a retelling of Dostoevsky's "The Idiot". Having just read both books I can say that is prime façie obvious. Read more
Published on Dec 26 2000 by Walker E. Rowe III
4.0 out of 5 stars You will not beleive Will's adventure
But you are not supposed to. If you are looking for Percy the catholic here you will be let down. If you are looking for Percy the southernman you will be let down. Read more
Published on Dec 7 2000 by Chris Slavensky
3.0 out of 5 stars Oddly disappointing
This is a disappointing novel. And I'm not sure why. For years I've admired Percy's essays. I knew him to be a solidly Catholic writer from the South -- always a definite... Read more
Published on Sep 18 2000 by W M
4.0 out of 5 stars A characterization of the human condition
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... Read more
Published on Jun 26 2000 by Blue Six
5.0 out of 5 stars A pilgrimage of observation
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... Read more
Published on Feb 21 1999
5.0 out of 5 stars A Postmodern Pilgrimage
Percy explores the need in each of us for authenticity- that highly allusive quality in a fragmented, uprooted time. Read more
Published on Sep 1 1998
3.0 out of 5 stars a lot of good stuff, but a lot of fluff
Well, I read the Last Gentleman and I can most certainly say I see Percy's point. But it sure seems as if Percy threw in a lot of extra junk in the book, almost as if to lengthen... Read more
Published on Jun 29 1998
5.0 out of 5 stars The Last Gentleman: What it means to pass from death to life
Marooned in New York City, displaced Southerner Will Barrett finds himself utterly abstracted
from his world and himself. Read more
Published on Aug 19 1997
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