Tom Bartlett recently wrote an entertaining homage to Lost in the Cosmos for the Chronicle of Higher Education. The article is aptly named, “Walker Percy’s Weirdest Book.” Mr. Barlett’s summary of the book is spot on:

Easily the strangest book he [Percy] wrote was Lost in the Cosmos, which is shelved among the nonfiction but is actually an indescribable concoction of hard facts and wild imagination, a parody of self-help books (sort of), a philosophy textbook (kind of), and a collection of short stories, quizzes, diagrams, thought experiments, mathematical formulas, made-up dialogue, ridiculously long chapter titles, and a few David Foster Wallace-worthy footnotes. It’s honestly great, or possibly terrible, depending on your level of patience for Percy’s stew of literary high jinks.

I suspect this book gives us the most unfiltered look into Percy’s mind.

Tags: Lost in the Cosmos, Tom Bartlett

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