Independent Reading Entry 2

Percy, Walker
Lancelot
8/26/08

As the book continues you discover more about Lance's life. He explains how he hit the peak of his life around his college years where he was a Rhodes scholar and held the record for longest touchdown in the state of Louisiana. He talks about the times that he first met his wife that is now cheating on him and about when he discovered that she had been unfaithful. He saw his daughter's blood type on a form and figured out that no matter what his wife's blood type was there was no way their daughter could have had that blood type if he was indeed the father. AB cannot make an O type baby. I thought that this was a very interesting way of discovering something like this but what was even more interesting is how he reacted and felt about the discovery. He describes not a feeling of anger, shock, or even betrayal or sadness; he simply explains that it sparked a "worm of interest" in him.

From this somewhat numb discovery he begins to realize his life has been a simple routine that he has almost never broke away from. He stops drinking and smoking and he makes an attempt to stray off the well-beaten path. This was very intriguing to me and it reminded me of the movie American Beauty: a numb businessman coasting through life that suddenly wakes up and change the way he lives. His lack of emotion for his wife and the discovery of her cheating is later clarified when he describes the feeling of "like" and not love that he felt for her. They shared joyful moments and were ecstatic when together, but his first wife was the only one that he says he was "in love with."