The Thanatos Syndrome, Walker Percy
The Thanatos Syndrome, Walker Percy
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The Thanatos Syndrome

Author: Walker Percy

Narrator: David Hilder

Unabridged: 14 hr 19 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 02/14/2014

Synopsis

When Dr. Tom More (of Love in the Ruins) is released on parole from state prison, he returns to Feliciana, Louisiana, the parish where he was born and bred, and where he practiced psychiatry before his arrest. Upon arriving, he notices something strange in almost everyone around him: unusual sexual behavior in women patients, a bizarre loss of inhibition, a lack of complexity in speecheven his own wifes extraordinary success at bridge tournaments, during which her mind seems to function like a computer. With the ingenious help of his attractive cousin, Dr. Lucy Lipscomb, More begins to uncover a criminal experiment to improve peoples behavior by drugging the local water supply. But beyond this scheme are activities so sinister that even Tom More wouldnt believe them if he hadnt witnessed them with his own eyes.

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.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Angus on December 15, 2017

Pleasantly surprised. I'll admit I was assigned this book in a Southern Lit class at university and never read it. The best part is there's an interesting overlying story on top of the underlying literary allusions. Entertaining and strange. I really liked it. Will definitely have to read his award......more

Goodreads review by Brent on May 21, 2017

Read for book club. It had some good points, but I thought the story was disjointed the narrative voice was uncomfortable, and the ending was absurd. I was glad when it was over.......more

Goodreads review by Richard on July 31, 2021

Walker Percy is one of my favorite writers. I liked The Last Gentleman so much that I gave copies of it to all of my clients as Christmas presents. The Moviegoer is brilliant. Mr. Percy's books are populated with seekers who sometimes don't know that they are seeking anything but who manage to find......more

Goodreads review by Petergiaquinta on November 17, 2014

Not exactly what you'd expect from Walker Percy, and the GoodReads write-up doesn't begin to give you a sense of what this book is about (for starters, it's published in the '80s so someone should fix that blurb!), The Thanatos Syndrome sounds like a Ludlum novel from the get-go and reads a little l......more

Goodreads review by Jennifer on May 01, 2012

Not sure why, as an one-time English major with a brother who loved this author's books, it's taken me so long to discover Walker Percy. An amazing read. At one point near the end it got pretty disturbing, but the questions he raises about life and death are important and fascinating. I was also int......more

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