Is Walker Percy a good Catholic novelist?

[caroljm36]

When I first became a Catholic I heard I should read Walker Percy’s stuff, but when I tried reading Love in the Ruins I got really grossed out. Not exactly Flannery O’Connor! I thought, maybe I got the name wrong? Yet he seems to be very highly regarded.

Recently I read that the book I tried to read was meant to be a satire on modern life (I assume in all its Godlessness), especially the manipulation of people by psychiatry…still, I don’t know.

Did Percy have a good Catholic worldview, or was he heretic or what??

 

[Socrates]

I can’t speak with any real knowledge about Percy’s personal Catholic worldview, but I read Love in the Ruins recently with the understanding that it is indeed satire. When it’s read as such, it is utterly hilarious in parts. The underlying theme (one of them, anyway) that I got out of it is that it’s futile to try fixing a broken soul by merely treating the body.

It’s certainly not the type of book that is going to be everybody’s “cup of tea” though. It’s sort of “out there.”

 

[PilgrimJWT]

I know nothing of the dude. But a novelist is a novelist, and represents his own opinions in what he writes. While it is interesting to know whether a novelist is Catholic or not, it is hardly essential. The right question to ask is if he is good or bad at his craft.