Walker Percy was forty-five years old when he began his literary career in 1961. His first book, a slim novel set in New Orleans, was called The Moviegoer. Warmly received by both critics and the public, the book won the National Book Award and became a best-seller. What is more, The Moviegoer has subsequently proved so popular that it has never been out of print. In the twenty-six years that followed, Percy wrote twenty-six more books; his last novel, published shortly before his death, was The Thanatos Syndrome, a book that was a fitting culmination to his improbable career. Within two weeks of its release, the novel soared into the Top Ten of several national bestseller lists, became a dual main selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club, and sold out its first printing of seventy-five thousand copies. In a 1984 interview, Percy had summed up his first novel, The...