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."

Walker Percy's Lancelot

Lancelot
Percy, Walker
1977

8/21/08
Lancelot
My junior year lit teacher handed out books to each student in the class based on what he had seen of our personalities and interests in literature. He chose this book, Lancelot, for me because of my psychology interest. It begins in a cell of some kind and the main character claims he is unsure whether it is a prison or a "nuthouse." The main character is the narrator and the text is him explaining his thoughts and experiences to an old friend. He doesn't want to remember certain events of his past because they are too painful for him and even doesn't let himself recognize his old friend in the beginning because he brought up too much pain.

The narration from the main character's discussion was somewhat monotonous at the start of the book. There has yet to be dialogue so when his friend would say something the text would be something like "What's that you say? You say this? Well let me answer this question of yours..." Not to that extent but it got pretty tedious to read. As the plot developed it became tolerable and much more interesting. I can see that the book will become full of conflict as he recalls his past experiences unwillingly and the psychology of it all is quite apparent. His story involves unfaithfulness and his strange analysis of the emotions he felt from this unfaithfulness. I'm very interested in finding out how he got to this "nuthouse" he finds himself in.