• Love in the Ruins

  • The Adventures of a Bad Catholic at a Time Near the End of the World
  • By: Walker Percy
  • Narrated by: Grover Gardner
  • Length: 11 hrs and 29 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (386 ratings)

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Love in the Ruins  By  cover art

Love in the Ruins

By: Walker Percy
Narrated by: Grover Gardner
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Publisher's summary

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.

©1971 Walker Percy (P)2000 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"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)

What listeners say about Love in the Ruins

Average customer ratings
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  • 4 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

good audiobook, some technical issues

good story, good performance. beginning of some words cut off. CD change instructions left in.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Bad Imitation of Catcher In The Rye

Hard to follow at most times and made little sense. Though it's parallels to today's world are eerily similar.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great Book Ruined by Reader

Walker Percy was a masterful writer whose stories are as much philosophy as literature. Love in the Ruins was prophetic! Unfortunately, the reader ruined it. Not only did he mispronounce words unique to Louisiana, but also common English words. Lazy!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

a book for the trump era!

While we work we also watch and listen and wait. Let's put out fires today.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

A crazy world and an irritating character

This novel has more of a story arc than others by Percy I have read, but nothing moves smoothly. It’s like a dream where one is planning to do something but can’t move forward. It seems that Tom More describes the same people and the same location several times in the course of this book and he never gets anywhere. It reflects the time in which it was written, 1970-71. There are hippies, a strange invention, revolutionaries, old bigots and racists, and lithe young girls from Texas. Tom has a pretty good set up except for the sniper who keeps trying to shoot him. The writing is entertaining and the dialogue is much like that found in his other books. No one seems quite right. Everyone is just a little off. I had to go at it in fits and starts, re-reading some parts just to make sure I got it. Probably wasn’t necessary, though, because it didn’t make all that much sense anyway. With Percy, you just go with the flow and have fun.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A telling novel for our times

An excellent book for so many reasons, mostly Percy's genius in demonstrating vast cultural concepts through very human and relatable characters, genius even more for the accuracy in which he foretold the current situation of our society.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Crazy

alot of details..I couldnt figure out the story for a few chapters..but then it was pretty good and funny too

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

great performance, good story.

the story is very interesting and it keeps you wondering what is going to happen.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Remarkable

It's a rare book that can be simultaneously light amd airy and also packed with philosophical observations and questions, and this one does it. This is a book for our times as it poke a wry finger into the eye of our current hyper partisan ugliness and makes it feel like there is much to laugh about there.

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Prophetic Novel, Perfect Sobering Voice

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I'm amazed Percy wrote this novel in 1971 since it seems to depict our own day so well (at least a grotesque sci-fi version of it). Love Grover Gardner's voice. Perfect for this chilling yet whimsical ethical and religious satire of America. I'm going to listen to more of Gardner's narration--he's done a ton of stuff.

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1 person found this helpful