The Thanatos Syndrome

by Walker Percy, David Hilder (Read by)

Overview

When Dr. Tom More is released on parole from state prison, he returns to Feliciana, Louisiana, the parish where he was born and bred, where he practiced psychiatry before his arrest. He immediately notices something strange in almost everyone around him: unusual sexual behavior in women patients, a bizarre loss of inhibition, his own wife's extraordinary success as bridge tournaments, during which her mind seems to function like a computer. With the help of his attractive cousin, Dr. Lucy Lipscomb, Dr. More begins to uncover a criminal experimentto "improve" people's behavior by drugging the local water supply. But beyond this scheme are activities so sinister that Dr. More can only wonder if the whole world has gone crazy — or he has . . .

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781441705471
Publisher:	Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Publication date:	06/20/2012
Edition description:	Unabridged
Pages:	1
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 1.50(h) x 5.00(d)

About the Author

Walker Percy is the author of over ten books of fiction and nonfiction, including the bestsellers The Moviegoer and The Thanatos Syndrome. He was awarded numerous prizes during his lifetime, including the National Book Award, and is considered to be one of the greatest American writers of our time. He died in 1990.

Editorial Reviews

When psychiatrist Tom More returns home to Feliciana, Louisiana, after doing time at a minimal security prison, he is dismayed by the bizarre behavior he encountersthe ``curious flatness of tone,'' the loss of sexual inhibition, of complex speech, even of context in conversation. More is further dismayed to discover that fellow psychiatrist Bob Comeaux is masterminding an unauthorized scheme to eradicate social ills by manipulating cortical functions through surreptitious doses of heavy sodium. And the suspense is only beginning, for More wants to investigate signs of sexual abuse at his children's school. The loss of human response smacks of a grade-B horror filmMore himself speaks of ``bodysnatchers''and the moral implications of social engineering, though given the most contemporary interpretation here, have already been considered. But in crisp, masterful prose Percy delivers a relentlessly compelling tale. BOMC dual main selection. Barbara Hoffert, ``Library Journal''

Library Journal

There is ample evidence of Percy's brilliance in The Thanatos Syndrome - the droll Dixie anthropology, the pitch-perfect dialogue, the sheer intelligence everywhere on the page.... It is splendidly, uproariously catholic, as well.” —Douglas Bauer, Atlantic Monthly

From the Publisher