';A great adventure . So outrageous and so real, one is left speechless.' Chicago Sun TimesIn Walker Percy's future America, the country is on the brink of disaster. With citizens violently polarized along racial, political, and social lines, and a fifteen-year war still raging abroad, America is crumbling quickly into ruin. The country's one remaining hope is Dr. Thomas More, whose ';lapsometer' is capable of diagnosing the spiritual afflictionsanxiety, depression, alienationdriving everyone's destructive and disastrous behavior.But such a potent machine has its pitfalls. As Dr.

More soon learns, in the wrong hands, the powerful lapsometer could lead to open warfare, pushing America into anarchy at full-speed.