By: Walker Percy Publisher: Ivy Books Average Rating: Binding: Mass Market Paperback Label: Ivy Books Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 212 Publication Date: March 12, 1988 Release Date: March 12, 1988
Product Description: "A curious, tender book, provocatively and intelligently imagined."
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
Binx Bolling is s small-time stockbroker who lives quietly in suburban New Orleans, pursuing an interest in the movies, affairs with his secretaries, and living out his days. But soon he finds himself on a "search" for something more important, something that will measure and mark and hold his life forever against the passage of time. And one fateful Mardi Gras week, he finds it in a way, and with a woman, he would never have expected....
"A brilliant novel...Percy touches the rim of so many human mysteries."
HARPER'S
From the author of THE THANATOS SYNDROME.
Amazon.com Review: This elegantly written account of a young man's search for signs of purpose in the universe is one of the great existential texts of the postwar era and is really funny besides. Binx Bolling, inveterate cinemaphile, contemplative rake and man of the periphery, tries hedonism and tries doing the right thing, but ultimately finds redemption (or at least the prospect of it) by taking a leap of faith and quite literally embracing what only seems irrational.
Classic of Southern/American literature. The late Walker Percy has created a unique character in Binx "Jack" Bolling. The entire narrative of "The Moviegoer" is told from his point of view and delves so deeply into his thought process you feel you're walking in his shoes.
Inevitable comparisons to the Holden Caulfield character from Salinger's "Catcher In the Rye" will be made. The difference here is that Caulfield is still an inexperienced boy who is unable to handle the real world that hits him during his young adulthood. Binx Bolling is a 30-year old man who is broken. Whether he was always broken or made so as a result of experiences/injuries sustained in the Korean War - the reader is left to determine. He is adrift throughout the novel during his stream-of-conciousness narrative and the ride is a familar one. One thing that sustains him is his love of films (he regularly attends movies - usually by himself). He is able to see most people and situations in relation to films he has seen and that makes it more real for him. He is a successful stock-broker in New Orleans who runs his own 1-man shop and lusts after his secretaries while at the same time trying to please his rich Aunt and woo his cousin Kate, who he is destined to marry.
The novel is a classic and was written in 1961 - the same year as another classic, Richard Yates' "Revolutionary Road". "The Moviegoer" edged it out for the National Book Award and I, personally, think it is too close a call to pick a superiour novel of those two. Mr. Percy's novel is worthh exploring for those who love films or respect the life of the mind as the true inner voice of your life.
Good craftmanship, but dull The Moviegoer is very well-written technically. Percy strings words together quite well, and the book is useful for aspiring writers as an example of well crafted sentences and paragraphs. However, I found little to interest me in terms of plot.
I kept waiting for an interesting plot or sub-plot to develop. I was willing to wade through the highly detailed, boring family histories and interrelationships in anticipation of a good plot kicking in. But just when I thought it was about to get interesting (around the halfway-point - the trip to the beach with Sharon), they run into a bunch of the most boring relatives imaginable and it goes on page after page describing and interacting with these uninteresting people. Quickly glancing at the pages ahead, I saw that there was going to be even more of that sort of thing - different, but equally boring people in other settings. So I quit reading the book.
I can enjoy literary books with minimal plot and heavy on character development (with characters that interest me) and interesting observations. For example I enjoyed Salinger's "Catcher in The Rye" and Hemingway's "Islands In The Stream" and "The Sun Also Rises" immensely. But I just didn't really get into these characters.
I have a few other Percy books plus his collection of essays. I have read a bit of these and enjoy them, but The Moviegoer is not my cup of tea.
Slicing into the core of mundacity The Moviegoer is a worthwhile read for anyone who questions the tediousness and resultant boredom of life. It is certainly not outdated for being published in 1960; if anything, it is more relevant today than then. Life as we know it now is even more formulaic than then. It is now even more difficult (if not impossible)to escape the "everydayness" we experience. Binx questions, attempts to search for an escape, but ultimately succumbs by falling in line, by marrying, by becoming no longer the Moviegoer, but the director in creating not art, but the same everydayness that he at first tries to avoid. Fascinating read.
Graceful, easy writing Nothing much happens as Binx Bolling searches for meaning in his life of malaise, albeit a comfortable malaise with plenty of money, a job, a home, and an extended family. He is rootless more in spirit than in reality, and his despair is existential, not in facing danger or struggling to survive. Therefore, his search is leisurely, through observation of the normal details of life around him, without ever engaging enough to escape what he perceives as a tedious existence.
There is more spark in most of the other characters, yet they fail to energize Binx as he hits 30. Kate serves as the most direct counter, with her own search running in parallel. Whereas Binx wants relief from malaise while drifting along, the near-suicidal Kate longs for stability amidst the occasional chaos she triggers.
Mr. Percy's writing showed exceptional grace and a light touch. Various scenes from a few paragraphs to a few pages long were the mark of a true craftsman, capturing a thought or a moment so beautifully. A favorite example was early on, when Binx observes a couple before and after a chance encounter with actor William Holden. Wonderful.
Mr. Percy's sketch of bygone New Orleans society and environs surely means more to one with personal memories of the south, especially New Orleans itself. Even so, the imagery was to me actually more interesting than Binx's search.
uninspiring if you've never sat down and considered the meaning of your own life, this book may open a new door for you. but if you're even minutely familiar with existentialism, percy will offer no original insight, novelty, or anything remotely inspiring. it read to me like a weak attempt to emulate camus's the stranger, yet with a serious lack of plot, replaced instead by painful doses of supposedly acute observation of random everyday people which are spliced in between already dreadfully boring dialogue or binx's daydreaming. the book starts off with an explanation of his search with some keen quotes, yet falls off miserably as you begin to realize that binx is no unique individual.
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