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Love in the Ruins: The Adventures of a Bad Catholic at a Time near the End of the World Audiobook
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(3.01) - 1,481 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
The auto age is defunct. Buicks, Chryslers, and Pontiacs disfigure the landscape. Vines sprout in Manhattan. Wolves are seen in downtown Cleveland. And psychiatrist, mental hospital outpatient, and inventor Dr. Tom More has created a miraculous instrument: the ontological lapsometer, a kind of stethoscope of the human spirit. With it, he plans to cure mankind's spiritual flu. But first he must survive Moira, Lola, and Ellen—and discover why so many living people are actually dead.
Attempting to save the world from completely destroying itself, Tom ultimately begins to understand the quality and caprices of life and the uncontrollable vagaries of time and chance.
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"An immensely philosophical novel set in Louisiana, Love in the Ruins comments on the inherent imperfection of life and life's purpose. It is equal parts satirical and dramatic -- beautifully written and cerebral. Percy sculpts his characters with renaissance focus, illuminating the subtle colors and tones a person can show by a twitch of the eye, a subtle movement, the strength or the fragility of their anatomy, and their habits and dialects. Dr. Tom More, the protagonist, is driven by lust, drinking, morning terrors, depression, and an "abstraction" from himself. He considers himself a catholic, but a bad catholic that rates his belief in god of least importance compared to his base desires and habits. Since this is a novel about the evident end of the world on July 4th 1985, one can see this as a novel that both humorously and seriously illuminates a second kind of independence day for the United States: its separation from itself. Whereas independence day celebrates the colonist's separation from Great Britain, the end of the world as it happens in this novel is the United States falling into ruin and separating into independent factions. This is a novel that ponders the separation of the self from itself as a metaphor for the United States' war with its self -- a satire of the polarization of politics, conflicts between religious denominations, and the concept of utopia. The human condition is not a perfect machine; instead, it is a civil war between systems of binary opposites. Ultimately, without spoiling much at all, the novel affirms the potential for life's beauty and serenity, but primarily when it is not in a state of imbalance. Indeed, there can be "love IN the ruins": there can be life after death, and there can be peace within conflict."
— Andre (4 out of 5 stars)
Quotes
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“A comedy of love against a field of anarchy…Percy is easily one of the finest writers we have.”
— New York Times Book Review -
“A great adventure…So outrageous and so real, one is left speechless.”
— Chicago Sun-Times -
“Immensely readable, vividly entertaining.”
— Los Angeles Times -
“Profoundly moving…One of the major novels of our time.”
— Milwaukee Journal -
“Brilliant and hilarious…Some of the most fascinating characters you’ll ever encounter.”
— Dallas Morning News -
“[Gardner] is a smooth narrator who handles dialect in context to the novel’s tone, giving just the right amount of emphasis. Production quality is excellent.”
— Kliatt -
“[Grover Gardner] is the perfect vehicle for both the bemused Dr. More and the satirical author himself. Hats off to Blackstone Audio for finding the perfect reader to match Percy’s timeless satire.”
— AudioFile
Love in the Ruins Listener Reviews
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" One of the best novels I have read in a long time - sharply satirical, witty, funny, and tragic all at the same time. "
— TJ, 2/17/2014 -
" I sometimes feel a little abashed to say how much I love this book, because if you're a serious literary person you can *only* like the Moviegoer. But Love in the Ruins is the first book I ever read by Percy, and I thought it was the smartest, funniest, oddest book--all dressed up in this hilarious country-club Southern accent. The world (the late 60s) is divided into Knotheads (conservatives in a delusional rage) and the Leftpapasanes (ineffective, muddied liberals). There's a great line: "The center did not hold. However, the Gross National Product continues to rise." Sounds familiar... "
— Scott, 2/11/2014 -
" fiction:south mid 1900s-----------drunken man searches his soul "
— Kim, 2/5/2014 -
" This book has been thoroughly reviewed and dissected since it's publication more than 40 years ago. Suffice it to say that I found it a great book to read during Advent. Dr. Tom More, a great protagonist. I call him a protagonist in the fullest, best sense of that word "
— Scott, 2/5/2014 -
" This was my favorite Walker Percy story, though it is slightly futuristic (from a 1980s perspective). It's all about Love, baby. "
— Peter, 1/30/2014 -
" Mr. Percy, you were a prince among men. "
— bo, 1/27/2014 -
" why is percy consistently one of the best american writers? read this book. "
— Jason, 1/18/2014 -
" Written before The Thanatos Syndrome, but I read it on the strength of Thanatos which I'd read 2 years previously. I like the main character. Interesting chap. "
— Woodge, 1/10/2014 -
" i suspect walker percy of fabricating john kennedy toole. "
— dead, 12/17/2013 -
" 74 pages in and I don't give a damn how it ends. "
— Lee, 12/12/2013 -
" Although at times I was rather confused I liked the book. The time skips forward then back which makes you really have to think, and I had to go back and read the first chapter after I was about a third through. "
— Erin, 12/11/2013 -
" I realized that, accidentally, I've been reading Percy's books in the order they were written. "
— Kevin, 11/9/2013 -
" Brilliant satire, touching humorously on what it is that makes us human. "
— Leif, 8/6/2013 -
" I really wanted to like this book. A dystopian science fiction novel written by a celebrated Catholic writer? Sounds like something I'd love. Unfortunately, I found the novel to be a bit too tedious and long for my liking. "
— Strawshine, 8/2/2013 -
" #willrevieweventually "
— Emily, 7/29/2013 -
" Wickedly funny Southern Gothic by one of the great Catholic authors of the 20th century. "
— MS, 5/24/2013 -
" Clever, insightful. "
— Scott, 4/16/2013 -
" Not as good as the Moviegoer. It's all over the place. As Eliz. says, maybe he didn't get much needed editing once he got big. "
— Cynthia, 4/16/2013 -
" You can have no idea what a book is trying to say and still like it. "
— Bill, 4/2/2013 -
" hillarious!! a southern vonegut "
— Brian, 3/14/2013 -
" Huxleyan fear, Orwellian description, and good ol' Southern humor rolled into one. Walker Percy's tongue-in-cheek treatise on the "Christ haunted,Christ-forgetting, death-dealing Western world" was written in 1971, but all-too-accurately describes the postmodern reality of today. "
— Justin, 1/19/2013 -
" Wonderful! Funny, insightful, quirky... The language is really creative as well. "
— Joseph, 12/2/2012
About Walker Percy
Walker Percy (1916–1990) was the author of nine books of fiction and nonfiction, including the award-winning The Moviegoer and the New York Times bestsellers The Thanatos Syndrome, Love in the Ruins, and The Second Coming . He is considered one of the greatest American writers of the twentieth century. He went to medical school, intending to be a psychiatrist, until he had a bout with tuberculosis. He married and converted to Catholicism. He became a writer, and his first novel, The Moviegoer, won the National Book Award and has never been out of print.
About Grover Gardner
Grover Gardner (a.k.a. Tom Parker) is an award-winning narrator with over a thousand titles to his credit. Named one of the “Best Voices of the Century” and a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine, he has won three prestigious Audie Awards, was chosen Narrator of the Year for 2005 by Publishers Weekly, and has earned more than thirty Earphones Awards.