What is the author's style in Lancelot by Walker Percy?

The point of view of this novel is first person. The novel is written as though Lancelot, the main character, is having daily conversations with a priest-psychiatrist who happens to be a good friend of Lancelot's from his childhood. The conversations revolve around a crime that took place at Lancelot's home and that he is now accused of committing. Lancelot is in a mental institution in New Orleans and has up to this point refused to speak to anyone or to leave his room except when forced to attend a meeting with his psychiatrist or to go to group counseling sessions. Lancelot chooses only to speak to this one person, a friend whom upon seeing him again helped Lancelot recall the events that led to him being locked in this place.

The point of view of this novel is unique in that it is not a typical first person narration. This point of view is first person, but it is told through conversation rather than exposition and observationi The novel does include dialogue, but this is in the form of conversations that the narrator is recalling as he tells the story of how he happened to find himself locked in a mental institution. Telling the story in this way creates an unreliable narrator. The reader has no idea if what Lancelot is telling the reader is the truth or simply the truth as he sees it through his growing insanity. The reader cannot even be sure if Lancelot is his real name, or if the characters that populate his story really existed. In fact, the reader is not even sure if Harry, the priest-psychiatrist he is making this confession to is real.