“The Message in the Bottle is a delight . . . a pleasure to read.” —Larry McMurtry, The Washington Post Book World

“Walker Percy has an intellectual range and rigor few American novelists can match.” —Thomas Leclair, The New York Times Book Review

“This book is worth examining for the confusions it reveals about the study of language and about what can be expected from it.” —Thomas Nagel, The New York Review of Books