On the surface, this book has very little
resemblance to the traditional Arthurian tales and the protagonist does
not much seem like our typical Lancelot. The story is set in the New
Orleans of the 1970s. What becomes clear is that this novel partly asks
the question of what would Lancelot be like in our day and age? In a land chivalry is meaningless, what happens to the epitome of chivalry? What happens to a crusader for goodness, when the idea of goodness is becomes horribly muddled? Percys answer is that he would probably become a drunk. This Lancelot does not stay drunk forever, though. When he wakes, since he cannot discover what good is anymore, he decides to find the essence of evil. If he can prove that evil, that sin, exists in a definite form, then good must likewise exist. And so begins his little crusade. While Percy shows how out-of-place a Lancelot is today, he also reveals that, in his own time, Lancelot might have been just as scary. All around this is a great book, and one worthy reading for any reason.
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