Joseph Cunneen, reviewing Paul Elie's The Life You Save May Be Your Own: An American Pilgrimage in the May 31 Christian Century: "Elie believes that it was only with The Thanatos Syndrome that Percy discovered the centrality of plot, which enabled him to write a succesful medico-philosophical thriller." True, which is why it is one of my favorite Percy novels, even if heavily didactic. (Fr. Smith is too obviously a mouthpiece for the author.)