Walker Percy's Lancelot reminds us of the novelist's role as conveyor of history. Although Percy is knowledgeable about the facts of Southern history, it is not factual history that he conveys. Rather it is that peculiar understanding of their own history which Southerners have that he reveals. (p. 875)

There is an indeterminate but very real point when a people's history becomes internalized. Myth becomes mores. When that happens to a tribe or to a nation, then the history as understood becomes more true than the history which historians seek to define. The novelist is a better historian of history-as-mores than the professional writer of history-as-it-happened. The novelist reaches deep into his psyche for his history, and he communicates readily to a wide audience because his readers recognize the same attitudes and perceptions within themselves. (pp. 875-76)

In Lancelot, Walker Percy writes about his perception of the South, and...