Percy has one concern and one theme in all of his novels: people's alienation from themselves, from others, from society, and, foremost, from God. Percy shares this general concern with the European existentialists, and his concern with mankind's alienation from God is shared by Christian existentialists such as Kierkegaard and Marcel. But Percy has made clear in interviews and essays that he believes mankind's alienation (or "exile," as the Catholic prayer Salve Regina expresses it) is the ancient, central Christian doctrine of the Fall. To put it colloquially, as Percy does in his novels, people are in pretty bad shape these days (and always have been), and they need to "get right" with themselves, one another, society, and God.

Since Percy believes all forms of alienation stem from a central Fall from grace, it is not always possible to separate an individual's attempt to overcome his...