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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780375701962
ISBN number: 0375701966
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 256
Printing Date: April 14, 1998
Publishing house: Vintage
Release Date: April 14, 1998
Sale Popularity Level: 20999
Studio: Vintage
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
Winner of the 1961 National Book Award
The dazzling novel that established Walker Percy as one of the major voices in Southern
literature is now available for the very first time in Vintage paperback.
The Moviegoer is Binx Bolling, a young New Orleans stockbroker who surveys the world with
the detached gaze of a Bourbon Street dandy even as he yearns for a spiritual redemption he
cannot bring himself to believe in. On the eve of his thirtieth birthday, he occupies
himself dallying with his secretaries and going to movies, which provide him with the
'treasurable moments' absent from his real life. But one fateful Mardi Gras, Binx embarks
on a hare-brained quest that outrages his family, endangers his fragile cousin Kate, and
sends him reeling through the chaos of New Orleans' French Quarter. Wry and wrenching, rich
in irony and romance, The Moviegoer is a genuine American classic.
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.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers -
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.
Rated by buyers 
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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.
Rated by buyers 
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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 yesterday 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 very first tries to avoid. Fascinating read.
Rated by buyers -
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.
Rated by buyers 
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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 endeavor 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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