WALKER PERCY—LOVE IN THE RUINS—1971—1st Edition, 1st Printing—HARDCOVER

Description: • For Your Consideration: • A VG+ First Edition, First Printing in HARDCOVER of a Classic—and “Prophetic”—Novel: • “LOVE IN THE RUINS: The Adventures of a Bad Catholicat a Time Near the End of the World” (FARRAR, STRAUS, & GIROUX, 1971) (HARDCOVER, *First Edition, First Printing) • BY WALKER PERCY • “The satiric DOSTOYEVSKY of the bayou.''—ALFRED KAZIN• ABOUT THIS TITLE: • “Readers who were paying attention in the second half of the 20th century know that PERCY stands alongside FLANNERY O’CONNOR as one of the great Catholic satirists to explode onto the American literary scene after World War II…. In 1971, he published what now seems the prophetic novel LOVE IN THE RUINS, an apocalyptic narrative about a country torn and divided.” —MICHAEL PEARSON, NEW YORK JOURNAL OF BOOKS • “PERCY was a prolific writer, a teacher, an astute scholar in semiotics, and a keen observer of life in general. It is possible to read PERCY’s novels (and essays and articles and other books) with no consideration of the spirituality of the author. That is possible. But when his writings are approached in this manner—the approach I took as an ignorant freshman—so much is missed. The CHRIST-haunted, CHRIST-graced author who possessed such a superb way with words has something precious to tell us. We need only pay attention and be open to the movement of grace…. When you chat with PERCY fans, there is the inevitable discussion of their favorite of his works. Some would say THE MOVIEGOER, winner of the National Book Award in 1962. Others might offer THE LAST GENTLEMAN, or even the sublime, though disturbing, LANCELOT. These are great books, deserving of thoughtful reading. But I will always say—and this is not just sentiment talking—LOVE IN THE RUINS. Start there. Start with LOVE IN THE RUINS.”—ELLYN VON HUBEN, WORDS ON FIRE • “Throughout, the book is written at an extraordinary level of physical perceptions; and PERCY’s attempt to offer an image of a supple Christianity is impressive. All of his claims, artistically and philosophically are embedded in a windrow of rendered and carefully watched fiction. It is only because PERCY focuses our attention at a very high level that large reservations about the success of this novel can be expressed. PERCY is easily one of the finest writers we have, capable, moment by moment, of being better than one can quickly see.”—THOMAS McGUANE, NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW (1971) • “I’ve just finished re-reading WALKER PERCY’s apocalyptic comedy, , LOVE IN THE RUINS. It’s one of the books I return to every few years and find even better each time. The story, set in the near future, is more timely, and more prophetic, than it was when the book was first published half-a-century ago.” —JIM FOREST (JIM & NANCY FOREST, BLOG) • “LOVE IN THE RUINS is one of PERCY’s more ‘social’ novels, satirizing elements of American life like sex, politics, and religion at a societal level. Even so, it is still a novel ultimately concerned with a theme that runs through nearly all of the existentialist Catholic author’s works: the individual person’s struggle for meaning, identity and integrity within an epoch that breeds dislocation, alienation, and malaise.” —JONATHAN LIEDL, NATIONAL CATHOLIC REGISTER • “PERCY is most famous for THE MOVIEGOER, an enigmatic commentary on American culture and the post-war South, written in 1961. LOVE IN THE RUINS arrived on the scene a decade later and differs significantly in tone and content. While THE MOVIEGOER is realistic and opaque, LOVE IN THE RUINS is a comedic science fiction story about the end of the world, set in a cartoonish version of the 1980s. Despite its humor, however, the novel is a serious one, painting a startlingly accurate picture of modern America…. LOVE IN THE RUINS speaks to our present moment in the United States like few other books. From the state of the political parties to divisions within the Catholic Church to the renewal of racial tensions, PERCY’s predictions are eerily accurate. Even more important, though, is what PERCY has to teach us about the dangers of moral superiority, ideological idealism, and the capacity of intellectual humility and hard work for achieving genuine progress. In this divided, contentious time, we would do well to revisit this classic work––and take its lessons to heart.”—COLLIN SLOWEY, THE PUBLIC DISCOURSE • “PERCY is not the cure for all that ails us. For all his propagandizing and moralizing, LOVE IN THE RUINS is still merely a novel—and a sometimes ‘dirty’ one at that (though what sex, violence, and cursing it contains is quite purposeful). It neither attempts nor succeeds in addressing all of life, but it raises many questions that we still wrestle with today, ‘in these dread latter days of the old violent beloved U.S.A. and of the CHRIST-forgetting CHRISt-haunted death-dealing Western world.’ Early criticism of the book centered on its structural deviations and exaggerated satire but even then recognized its theological force.Through this violent PICASSO painting of the modern soul, PERCY calls us to a restored faith that informs all of life, not merely a holy corner that is more shaped by the culture than shaping it. The remnant of the Church in this story recognizes that it can only serve America by being in but not of it.” —JRLONAS, HARDSCRABBLE (BLOG) • “I have just finished WALKER PERCY’s LOVE IN THE RUINS…. PERCY has a lot to say in this dark comedy. I should probably let it soak in a bit more. But I already know this—that the book will stay with me, as all significant reads do.” —NOTES FROM A COMMON-PLACE BOOK (BLOG) • “A great adventure.... So outrageous and so real, one is left speechless.” ―CHICAGO SUN TIMES • “Immensely readable, vividly entertaining.” ―LOS ANGELES TIMES• “Brilliant and hilarious…some of the most fascinating characters you’ll ever encounter.”―DALLAS MORNING NEWS• “One of the major novels of our time.”―MILWAUKEE JOURNAL• “Like just about every other PERCY character, DR. MORE [in LOVE IN THE RUINS] is also a seeker and connoisseur of clues. His bizarre utterances may elicit raised eyebrows around Paradise Estates, and his credibility has been badly damaged, but this is exactly what PERCY intends. We readers too are invited to suspect DR. MORE’s veracity as a witness. Are people really shooting at him?—though the bullet holes may speak for themselves. Do evil vines actually sprout from every crevice? Neighbors fail to notice them. These and further instances may well compromise DR. MORE, but they fail to undermine our uneasy intuition that he may prove the one character in the novel we can believe.” —LOUIS GALLO, SOUTHERN LITERARY REVIEW• “And why shouldn’t WALKER PERCY write a Roman Catholic science-fiction comic existential romance novel? Rarely do I read a book, and proclaim: ‘Well, no one ever did that before.’” —TED GIOIA, THE HONEST BROKER • “A more palpable and accessible book than THE MOVIEGOER or THE LAST GENTLEMAN…. It is impossible to indicate the range of WALKER PERCY’s septic but indulgently appealing satire with its fallout of ideas and phenomena and magnificently funny moments. It is to be read—and best read more than once.”—KIRKUS REVIEWS • MORE ABOUT THE AUTHOR: • “One of our most talented and original authors…more of a philosophical novelist in the European tradition than a straightforward narrative storyteller.'” —MICHIKO KAKUTANI, NEW YORK TIMES • “He is a beguiling, uniquely gifted novelist who deserves to be read in order and in full.” ―NEWSWEEK • “Our greatest Catholic novelist since FLANNERY O’CONNOR.” —FRANCINE DU PLESSIX GRAY • “A very original cast of mind…unlike any other Southern writer.” —ROBERT GIROUX, FARRAR, STRAUS & GIROUX • “WALKER PERCY knows as much about how the people of the Deep South act and speak as anyone that I can think of. He knows what is limited, narrow-minded and even grievously wrong in the social fabric of the Old South.” —CLEANTH BROOKS • “THE MOVIEGOER is probably my favorite book and PERCY certainly my favorite author…. PERCY’s books are a model for me in that each of the later ones especially seemed to be a genre novel on the surface—a thriller (THANATOS), a southern gothic romance (LANCELOT), an UPDIKE-ean exploration of mid-life in the suburbs (THE SECOND COMING), a dystopian sci-fi satire (RUINS). I love these high-concept conceits that pull you inside, and once you're under, you find a novel so thick with ideas it's almost Russian. I don’t pretend to be in PERCY's league, but his books are a template for the kinds of entertaining, existential stories I want to tell. I have to admit that when my agent called with the offer, my first reaction was, ‘Holy crap, I'm a novelist!’ followed seconds later by ‘Holy crap, Knopf published THE MOVIEGOER!’’ —KEVIN GUILFOILE• “During the last third of the twentieth century, WALKER PERCY was a force to be reckoned with, as essayist, philosopher, vocal Catholic, and, especially, as a prize-winning novelist, often best-selling. (He was considered a first-class stylist.) Describable, I think, as ‘psychological gothic’ (and Southern, though he came to hold no truck with FAULKNER), those six novels are books of ideas, lots of them, none simple. All were academically examined and widely reviewed, usually favorably even when not entirely understood.” —JAMES COMO, THE IMAGINATIVE CONSERVATIVE • “WALKER PERCY believed he had a call from GOD to write novels that artistically engaged non-religious readers by creating a believable, fictional world in which the grace of GOD is evident amid a culture that ignores GOD. Fully realizing this readership would not want to be preached at, Percy still felt compelled to show the mass audience novelistically that Christian belief is necessary. Biographer JAY TOLSON believes that ‘PERCY’s art…implies that the only way out of this deathtrap is the mysterious workings of grace.’ TOLSON sees that PERCY’s novels corner characters with only one way out—faith in the biblical GOD…. PERCY’s Catholic Christian viewpoint gave him insight into what was wrong with the world and what could be done to fix it: craft novels aimed at arousing agnostic readers’ interest in life’s principal questions and in Christianity’s answers. With humor, satire, and emblematic settings and clergy, these novels picture a castaway combing the beach for clues as to where he came from and what his destiny is.”—RICH GRAY, CHRISTIAN SCHOLAR’S REVIEW • “Among recent novels, masterly and superior.” —JOHN ROMANO, NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, ABOUT THE AUTHOR’S “THE SECOND COMING” • “What a pleasure…. His best book since THE MOVIEGOER…and among the most admirable American novels of the past few years.” ―THE NEW REPUBLIC, ABOUT THE AUTHOR’S “THE SECOND COMING” • “A comedy shot through with serious observations…. This is a strong novel which satirizes both an easy, ill-considered Christianity and various clinical ideologies, defining its adversaries in modern culture clearly and taking them on directly. THE SECOND COMING treats two characters who are suffering because of their age's impoverished view of the possibilities of human life, and it sees them through to a full recovery.”—ELIZABETH MUTHER, CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, ABOUT THE AUTHOR’S “THE SECOND COMING” • “WALKER PERCY has become one of my favorite writers on the basis of one novel, THE SECOND COMING. This lost classic is in-print, as are all of PERCY’s books, but no one seems to talk about it…. In this funny, beautifully written existentialist novel, WILL BARRETT is the anti-hero, a middle-aged lawyer who has retired early in New York and moved back to North Carolina to play golf and…what? He isn’t sure. Every sentence is beautifully crafted. I read this difficult book in a couple of days, because even though it is characterized by stream-of-consciousness and existential angst, it is very funny and, yes, a page-turner.” —FRISBEE: A BOOK JOURNAL (BLOG), ABOUT THE AUTHOR’S “THE SECOND COMING” • “And like TAXI DRIVER, PERCY’s novel—released around the same time, of course—seems like an early analysis of the failure of the sixties. It’s the burn out, the hangover, the realization that the dream was just a dream, and that the business of reality is cruel and cold and dirty. Perhaps insanity is the proper response. There’s so much in LANCELOT I’ve failed to unpack: Its analysis of America–North, South, and West–its treatment of Hollywood, its strange gnostic tinges, its weird tangled and often colliding philosophies. LANCELOT LAMAR is an enthralling monologist, witty, severe, pathetic and sympathetic, simultaneously cartoonish and ferociously real. I’ve also failed to convey how funny this novel is—PERCY’s prose crackles and zaps, zips and dips, turns into weird little unexpected nooks. I ate it up. LANCELOT was the first WALKER PERCY novel I’ve read, but it won’t be the last. Great stuff.” —EDWIN TURNER, BIBLIOKEPT, ABOUT THE AUTHOR’S “LANCELOT”• “PERCY’s novel is one of the most peculiar, shocking, and profound works of art I have ever read. The author never gives anything to us straight; instead, he forces us to divine meaning by inverting all the basic assumptions at the heart of the text. In the same way that LANCELOT struggles through life anxious and disconnected, so the reader, in a way, struggles with growing anxiety to perceive the moral conclusion of the matter.” —M PECK, THE USUAL SUBTEXT (BLOG), ABOUT THE AUTHOR’S “LANCELOT” • “I liked it probably superficially the first time, when it came out, and I liked it in more depth this time. This time I had the advantage of forty additional years of life.” —MATT PAUST’S CRIME TIME (BLOG), ABOUT THE AUTHOR’S “LANCELOT”• “With his tendency toward digression, LANCELOT can be a tiresome narrator, but in the final major scene of the novel PERCY unleashes his remarkable descriptive and dramatic powers and draws by far his most effective scene. Ironically, after [a nearby] film company has gone to untold trouble to simulate a hurricane, a devastating storm approaches just as they are finishing, and the novel’s major scene takes place in the midst of it. On that last night at Belle Isle, LANCELOT is under the influence of drugs that one of the film stars has given him, and his memories of the night are unreliable, at times obviously hallucinatory, but they are vivid, striking, and, in light of the characters involved, profoundly true.” —DAVID GUY, THE SUN MAGAZINE, ABOUT THE AUTHOR’S “LANCELOT”• “LANCELOT stands as one of his best and probably most misunderstood books, a mid-Seventies shotgun blast at American hypocrisy….” —INFINIMATA (WEBSITE)• “LANCELOT and LOVE IN THE RUINS may not be as perfect as his other novels, yet both contain profound wisdom and some of his most brilliant writing: perfectly rendered dialogue between Deep South peoples; truly rendered scenes of place; and prose that often rises to poetry.” —CHIP PREHN, THE LIVING CHURCH (WEBSITE)• “He writes about New Orleans and the surrounding countryside as though he had created it.” —TIME MAGAZINE, ON THE AUTHOR’S “THE MOVIEGOER” • “A distinguished work of art…. It succeeds brilliantly in dramatizing the contradictory nature of reality through characters who are at once typical of our condition yet saltily individual. WALKER PERCY’s perception luminously lights up obscure depths of experience.” —PETER BUITENHUIS, NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, ABOUT THE AUTHOR’S “THE LAST GENTLEMAN” • “Nothing that I can say about this novel will convey the sense of constant delight that it provides.” —CAMMPBELL GESSLIN, HOUSTON POST, ABOUT THE AUTHOR’S “THE LAST GENTLEMAN” • • For other details about this book, please see below. • TITLE: “LOVE IN THE RUINS: The Adventures of a Bad Catholic at a Time Near the End of the World” AUTHOR: WALKER PERCY JACKET DESIGN: JANET HALVERSON TYPE: HARDCOVER PUBLISHER, LOCALE, & YEAR: FARRAR, STRAUS & GIROUX (New York), 1971 EDITION: First US Edition, First Printing* *RE: On the Copyright Page, the statement: “First printing, 1971”—with no later printings listed. PAGES: 403ISBN: 0-374-1-9302-9 NOTE: THIS BOOK is not an ex-library copy nor a Book-of-the-Month-Club edition. CONDITION OF DUST JACKET: VERY GOOD / VERY GOOD PLUS. Price ($7.95) is unclipped. Corners are bumped. Spine tips are bumped/lightly scuffed. There’s an inch-long crease near the top of the spine on the front. Light wear along edges. Overall DJ has light age-toning but is still bright & clean with only light scratching & smudging (from normal handling). (Now protected in a Brodart cover.) CONDITION OF BOOK: VERY GOOD PLUS. Book is square & firm. Corners are fine. Edges are fine. Spine is tight & uncreased with bumped tips. Spine-lettering remains vivid. Text-blocked edges are lightly scuffed & very faintly toned. Though faintly toned, the pages are also pointedly clean & bright—with no writing, no underlining, no highlighting, no tears, no stains, no foxing, no foul odor, etc. LOOKS UNREAD. • SHIPPING NEWS: This book will be wrapped with care before being shipped in a cushioned & sturdy box. THANK YOU! ********************** /\___/\=•ᆺ•= “We believe it’s good business to be good to our customers.” *********** FLAPPINCAT’s HOUSE RULES ***********1. GENERAL TREATMENT. We enjoy treating FLAPPINCAT customers with honesty & respect & warmth because that’s how we like to be treated when we buy things on eBay.2. GENERAL ATTITUDE. We are grateful you choose to trust us with your business. We aim for that gratitude to permeate every part of how we engage with you.3. OUR DESCRIPTIONS. We describe every item we sell as clearly and accurately as we can. When it comes to describing condition, we tend toward being conservative. 4. PACKING & SHIPPING. We know from experience that items, when not thoughtfully packed, can be damaged during shipment. To avoid that real danger, FLAPPINCAT wraps & cushions your purchase(s) mindfully—and sometimes zealously—in a sturdy package. WARNING: In our zeal, we sometimes over-tape containers and you may need a penknife to unseal our shipments. NOTE: Though we often recycle shipping materials, we do NOT stint on protection. 5. OUR PRICES. We try to offer the lowest prices on eBay for items we sell. Even our most expensive offerings tend to be lower than what others are asking. “You could look it up!” —to quote baseball immortal JACK KEEFE. SUMMARY: We know you have many buying options on eBay. FLAPPINCAT tries to be distinctive by being accurate, mindful, and friendly. *********** How We GRADECONDITION ***********DETAILS. The condition of every item we sell will be described in detail.FLAWS. All discernible flaws will be noted, if not emphasized. Of course, the grading of condition can be subjective. And since no grader is perfect, it is possible that we may at times miss a flaw. It is also possible that we may miss some perfections! Should we make a mistake, you will find FLAPPINCAT eager to fix things with you. Just send us a note and we’ll get on it.GRADING SYSTEM. For books and magazines (and even other items), we use these terms (in order of desirability): VERY FINE or LIKE NEW FINE (or EXCELLENT) NEAR FINE (or NF) VERY GOOD PLUS (or VG+) VERY GOOD (or VG) GOOD FAIR ACCEPTABLE POOR “POOR.” Except in rare cases, for rare items, we tend to avoid selling items that are in utterly “POOR” condition. It is more likely that on a rare item, only one part of an item (out of numerous parts) will be described as “POOR.”RETURNS. We accept that you may wish to return a purchase because you genuinely think we haven't described and graded its condition properly. We accept that we our* imperfect. We also accept that people can see things differently—and still be civil! (*Get it?)POP QUIZ. Please feel free to ask questions at any time about condition (or anything else, except math). EXTRA VISUALS. Although we include multiple photographs in our listings, we usually have others we could share with you. (These extra photos also help to establish a paper-trial in the rare case that an item is damaged en route to you.)*********** SHIPPING ***********Every item is individually priced for postage. That price can be found in the listing, not here. UNITED STATES: In the USA, we ship books via MEDIA MAIL. Magazines are generally shipped PRIORITY MAIL; the Post Office does not permit magazines which carry advertising to be shipped MEDIA MAIL.INTERNATIONAL DESTINATIONS: To those international countries to which we ship (please see list), the cost of postage is calculated by eBay and individually listed with each item.EXPEDITED SHIPPING: In the United States, EXPEDITED SHIPPING is available if you request, and pay, for it BEFORE we ship your item. *********** HOW TO PAY ***********PAYMENT: As we ship promptly, we ask that you please pay promptly—via PAYPAL. With auctions, payments should be made before 3 days (72 hours) from the time an auction for an item closes. After 4 days—and independent of us!—eBay automatically begins a process for unpaid action. NEED MORE TIME? If you need more time to pay, PLEASE just contact us in advance of the deadline. We understand how life happens, so we don't mind being reasonable. Thank you!*********** LASTLY ***********What more can we say? Haven't we said enough? Well…we can always repeat ourselves. In summary: FLAPPINCAT is genuinely grateful for your patronage and we aim to express that gratitude in every way we can. Thanks for trusting FLAPPINCAT! *********** P.S. COMINGSOON *********** /\___/\=•ᆺ•= FLAPPINCAT’s BIG BARN SALE of RARE VINYL & RARE CDS Featuring the best from a long-running collection of psych, garage, folk, private press, blues, gospel, world, xian, & oddities. *********** ***********

Price: 50 USD

Location: Chapel Hill, North Carolina

End Time: 2024-11-16T17:36:13.000Z

Shipping Cost: 6.5 USD