The Moviegoer by Walker Percy (1988) Mass Market Paperback

Paperback, no date

Status

Available

Call number

Adult > Fiction

Publication

Ivy Books (no date)

Description

Fiction. Literature. HTML: In this National Book Awardâ??winning novel from a "brilliantly breathtaking writer," a young Southerner searches for meaning in the midst of Mardi Gras (The New York Times Book Review). On the cusp of his thirtieth birthday, Binx Bolling is a lost soul. A stockbroker and member of an established New Orleans family, Binx's one escape is the movie theater that transports him from the falseness of his life. With Mardi Gras in full swing, Binx, along with his cousin Kate, sets out to find his true purpose amid the excesses of the carnival that surrounds him. Buoyant yet powerful, The Moviegoer is a poignant indictment of modern values, and an unforgettable story of a week that will change two lives forever. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Walker Percy including rare photos from the author's estate.… (more)

Media reviews

Ironic but not cynical, complex without being abstruse, hopeful without sentimentality.

User reviews

LibraryThing member SeriousGrace
I felt like I was doing this book a disservice by reading it. I was bored half the time and I really couldn't tell you why. I guess I didn't fall in love with the main character as quickly or as easily as I wanted to. What is there to say? Binx "Jack" Bolling is a 29 year old stock broker who dates
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his secretaries. He's good at what he does so he earns everyone (including himself) a lot of money. He appears to be a shallow man who spends most of his free time going to the movies. The majority of the story takes place in New Orleans which was fun. I have always been fascinating by that area of the south.
For the most part The Moviegoer was a social commentary on a man who prefers to watch life from the sidelines. He doesn't spend a great deal of effort actually getting out there and making things happen. He has no clue who he is. Probably the most telling moment of the story is when Binx is being questioned: "'What do you love? What do you live by?' [he is asked.] I am silent'" is his reply (p 226). He can't even answer the question of what he holds sacred, of what makes him live.
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LibraryThing member paisley1974
I didn't like the macho posturing of the protagonist, and found his sexist perspective difficult to swallow. I did enjoy the descriptions of New Orleans neighborhoods; once one has lived there, one can't get enough of the local color. It does capture a certain post-war ennui, but in all, I really
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didn't enjoy it.
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LibraryThing member dreamingtereza
I thoroughly enjoyed this foray into "Kierkegaard's narrative." No, the novel doesn't say much, but it's not supposed to, I guess. And Percy has a wonderfully charming manner of saying nothing.
LibraryThing member Discursive
This is a spectacular novel, replete with all the mordant humor and superb characterization that one expects from an eminent Southern author. The Moviegoer is fundamentally a meditation on identity, authenticity, and reality itself. The protagonist, Mr. Binx Bolling, is possessed by a need to
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discover some meaning underpinning his plodding and unsatisfying life. For Binx, movies proffer a sort of mythical framework through which the rest of his reality is tinged and vivified. The work is a joy to read, and switches readily between the riotously funny and the utterly haunting. This is the work that established Percy as a great Southern author in the line of Faulkner, O'Connor, Agee, Welty, and Tate. I absolutely could not recommend it more highly.
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LibraryThing member SharonGoforth
Walker Percy's writing is excellent, which is why I gave this 4 stars. But his ideas, although thought provoking, really lead nowhere. Most of the book is spent on Binx's fixation on his "search". At the end, I did not feel there was any real conclusion to the search, which to me made most of the
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book pointless.
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LibraryThing member browner56
Binx Bolling is a lost soul, but at least he knows he’s lost. As the ostensible hero of Walker Percy’s beautifully rendered novel The Moviegoer, an almost 30-year old Binx wanders around New Orleans as part of his Search, which is “…what anyone would undertake if he were not sunk in the
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everydayness of his own life”. He spends his days going through the motions as a stockbroker in his Uncle Jules’ business while escaping at night into the artificial world of countless movie theaters and the pursuit of a variety of women. Of course, all of this is a great disappointment to his Aunt Emily, the matriarch of the family, who has far greater plans for his life. However, when Emily asks Binx to help counsel his cousin Kate, who is in even a more fragile mental state than he is, all of their lives are placed on a very different path.

Set during Mardi Gras week in 1960, The Moviegoer perfectly captures the angst, disillusionment, and uncertainty of an era in which an entire generation was trying to move on from the war while facing what the future held in store. While that future seemed so promising to so many—dazzling even—the reality of day-to-day life was often depressingly mundane. In that respect, this novel shares a common theme with Richard Yates’ equally remarkable Revolutionary Road, which Percy’s work actually beat out for the National Book Award. However, this is also a very Southern tale, infused as it is with the daily rhythms, speech patterns, and local flavor of the time and the place. Above all else, it is a deceptively philosophical novel and a compelling character study that has stood the test of time.

I really enjoyed this book, which I had known by reputation for years before I finally got around to reading it. To be sure, it is not really a plot-driven story, which is something that seems to be a concern for a lot of other reviewers. From my perspective, though, I found Binx Bolling to be one the great characters in recent literature and an archetype for so many disaffected modern male protagonists (e.g., Frank Bascombe in Richard Ford’s The Sportswriter and Independence Day) who have followed. Percy’s prose is sharp and insightful, as well as occasionally funny and charming. This novel, which is so full of compelling ideas and observations, is one that I will look forward to reading again in the future.
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LibraryThing member JBreedlove
A tough one to rate. After reading fast paced Bond and Dave Robicheaux novels a subtle slice of life from the past in a southern novel was initially slow. But reading is not all constant suspense and titillation. This book from the past and its references to the past and the near combustible
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southern future was a well written thoughtful look at modern life and how one should live it. In a time that today we may think of as almost pre-modern people were struggling with change and how to live in it. Just like today. Truly thought provoking with racial references and attitudes which would possibly not be allowed in today's works.
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LibraryThing member translator
It's one of my favorite books. It's true, there is not much of a plot in it, but this is part of the "message" as I understand it. Being on the search means that there's not necessarily a red line leading through a story with a clear cut plot line. And perhaps this is just one reason that makes
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this novel quite exceptional.

What makes this book so awesome to me is the protagonist’s (Binx Bolling) existential state of loneliness, in fact it is not only his state but humankind’s as a whole taking the existentialist’s point of view: being conscious of oneself and not knowing why one exists, loaded with an indefinite responsibility. The typical answers that might give meaning to human life, love, wealth (not art!) are unmasked as illusions easily. Yes, it reminds of Fitzgerald's Great Gatsby in some ways. It is this strangely purposeless (is it?) life filled up with horror on different layers of meaning, a silent horror in some ways, which all seems to be accepted in a somewhat stoical way. What adds up to the authenticity of this "human search" is not described with importunity but inwardly, quiet, and even gentle. At the same time I read it as a criticism against a nonsensitive, loud and superficial "Southern environment in the beginning 60ies" (easily to be transported into any other time and place, a “chiffre” for humankind as it is and was) a normality which lacks any understanding for life's main questions. That this is a major reason for the protagonist's cousin's (Kate) depression is nothing but one more logical consequence in this subtle novel in which there is much understanding for man’s basic state of existence and its resulting bewilderment.
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LibraryThing member edwinbcn
Rather a light read, and oddly enough, to get a clue as to what the book is about, one should pay attention rather to the books mentioned in the novel, than the movies.

I bought this book a few years ago, because nothing else was available. I was not sure whether I would like it, and over the
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years, between buying and reading it, a feeling had grown on me that I might not like it.

However, having read the book now, I feel, though not exalted, it is a somewhat interesting book, for the time it was written.
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LibraryThing member andreablythe
This is one of those in which not much happens. The main character is a man works and goes to the movies and wanders around trying to fight off malaise and everydayness. He is "Seeking" he says, but it's never really clear what he's looking for (perhaps the opposite of everydayness?) or how he
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plans to find it. His main fear is turning into "a Nobody from Nowhere".

Reading the first few pages, I enjoyed the writing style, but as the story went on, I quickly found myself less and less interested. I even grew to dislike the main character as he continued to view the world from a distance. There's a subtle racism throughout, which can be explained, if not excused by the face that it's story centered around a Southern white man in the '50s, and incorporated with that is a general sense of people not as people, but the ideas of people, as symbols and metaphors for existence. The narrator proposes selfishness as the best course of action and follows through.

One might think he is redeemed by his relationship with Kate, a depressed cousin by marriage prone to flights of fancy and despair, to whom he speaks to at the behest of his Aunt. He never really tries to help her, just follows her along on the rolling waves of her thought process. And though, their relationship "grows", I am not convinced that he cares for her, because his affections always seem to be based on his ideas.

It's one of those stories that I feel I probably should like, because it's well written and serious and supposed to be "meaningful" and stuff, but the truth is all I can muster is a meh in response. I could try to think about more, to see if I'm missing something, to try to determine what I feel about it in any real sense, but the problem is, I just don't care.
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LibraryThing member the_terrible_trivium
A character strangely resembling a friendlier version of Camus's Meursault wanders around New Orleans and not much happens. Moments of clarity here and there. A pleasant, odd book.
LibraryThing member Castlelass
It’s hard to get terribly excited about a book where the main character, John Bickerson “Binx” Bolling, talks about malaise throughout the book. Binx is 29 and lives in a basement apartment in Gentilly, a suburb of New Orleans. His main activities are working as a stockbroker, going to the
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movies, and pursuing his secretaries for sex. The writing is strong, but the book follows a character who can only be briefly satisfied, then sinks back into a morass of malaise. He is constantly searching for meaning in life, but not finding much of anything. His great-aunt Emily tries to steer him in a positive direction, while her stepdaughter, Kate, contemplates suicide.

Here’s an example of Binx’s inner dialogue: “What is malaise? you ask. The malaise is the pain of loss. The world is lost to you, the world and the people in it, and there remains only you and the world and you no more able to be in the world than Banquo’s ghost.”

What I liked:
- The writing is eloquent
- The sense of place is vivid – it is easy to picture New Orleans in 1954
- Emily’s speech near the end says what I have been thinking throughout the book

What I disliked:
- It is very difficult to feel much empathy for Binx due to his self-centeredness, racism, sexism, and lack of appreciation for his privileged life
- There is little to no plot – I typically enjoy character-driven novels, but I need at least a tiny bit of storyline to hold everything together
- There is no natural flow to the story – it feels like a disjointed series of memories and musings

This book won the National (US) Book Award for Fiction in 1962. If you like philosophical stories about existential angst, you may like it more than I did. It is well-written but rather dreary.
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LibraryThing member TimBazzett
I've wanted to read THE MOVIEGOER for many years, and now I finally have. My take on it may be slightly different than some. I see it as a kind of anti-war book. Its protagonist, Binx Bolling, is several years removed from his service in the Korean war, but he seems to be suffering from a kind of
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PTSD, which he refers to as the "malaise," or the "everydayness." Whatever he calls it, it has left him with a feeling of hopelessness, of "why bother." A moderately successful stockbroker with his uncle's New Orleans firm, Binx has no particular ambitions beyond his present circumstances. He lives his bachelor life in a bare, unadorned apartment. He engages in meaningless serial dalliances with his secretaries. He has no close friends. The last time he can remember life being important was when he "lay bleeding in a ditch" in Korea. He takes refuge in movies.

Walker Percy's novel also gives us a glimpse into New Orleans life in the late fifties. He shows us the inbred families of the crescent city, their attitudes toward the black servants they employ, as well as the strange, stratified carnival atmosphere of Mardi Gras. Indeed, everyone seems to expect Binx to marry his cousin, Kate, who is a story in herself, with her wildly fluctuating bipolar behavior. Binx does feel a surprisingly tender affinity toward his colorful cousin, and also shows immense tolerance and even affection for his several half-siblings, especially one who is crippled and sickly. In these particular relationships, he comes alive as a real and sympathetic character, in sharp contrast to his shallow affairs with his Marcia, Linda and Sharon secretaries.

The book starts off rather slowly, I thought, but the second half grabbed me and kept me turning pages - the parts about Kate and her family, as well as his crippled half-brother, Lonnie. I understand now why THE MOVIEGOER, first published in 1962, has long been considered a minor classic of Southern Literature. Percy is a unique sort of writer, and a damn good one. Binx Bolling is a character I will not soon forget. Very highly recommended.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER
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LibraryThing member jssdrlnd
I read The Moviegoer at least once every year. This is my favorite novel.
LibraryThing member DrFuriosa
This book probably felt deep and insightful in its day, but it did not connect with me. I know Walker Percy is hailed as one of the great Catholic writers, but I feel like the questions he addresses were better handled by Flannery O'Connor. Also, the ennui of successful white men leaves me cold in
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the year of Our Lord 2020. I'm not sorry to have read this, but I did not find it timeless.
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LibraryThing member Eye_Gee
This was the first Walter Percy book I've read and I'm hooked. His ability to capture details that make you see his scenes and characters vividly is unlike anyone else I can think of. I'm hooked and looking for more by him.
LibraryThing member John_Warner
Initially, one might perceive the novel's protagonist, Binx Bolling, as shallow primarily motivated to make money, to watch movies (which he frequently compares to reality), and to date each newly hired secretary. However, as accompany him on his and his relative, Kate Cutrer, on their existential
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journey throughout a post-WWII New Orleans, you realize that he has more psychological depth as the two explore alienation, faith, and life's meaning.

The author's interest in existential philosophy is evident in this novel's plot. If you are enjoy the contemporary author, Nicholson Baker, especially his short stream-of-consciousness The Mezzanine, you will enjoy his predecessor's The Moviegoer.
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LibraryThing member jwhenderson
When The Moviegoer was first published in 1961, it won the National Book Award and established Walker Percy as one of the leading novelists of the South. In his portrait of a boyish New Orleans stockbroker wavering between ennui and the longing for redemption, Percy managed to create an American
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existentialist saga. On the eve of his thirtieth birthday, Binx Bolling is adrift. He occupies himself dallying with his secretaries and going to movies, which provide him with the "treasurable moments" absent from this real life. Every night at dusk, when the Gulf breeze stirs the warm, heavy air over New Orleans, a 29-year-old wanderer named Binx Bolling emerges from his apartment, carrying in his hand the movie page of his newspaper, his telephone book and a map of the city. With these documents, Binx proceeds to chart his course to that particular neighborhood cinema in which he will spend his evening. But one fateful Mardi gras, Binx embarks on a quest — a search for authenticity that outrages his family, endangers his fragile cousin, Kate, and sends him reeling through the gaudy chaos of the French Quarter. Eventually through this "search" Binx rediscovers himself by having to face the far more desperate problems of Kate who as she sinks deeper within herself, finds only Binx can talk to her. And in the end, Binx decides to change by making decisions, taking risks, and opening himself to suffering--in other words, by accepting reality.
Wry and wrenching, rich in irony and romance, The Moviegoer is a genuine American classic.
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LibraryThing member mrminjares
This is a book about a man with equal interests in money and women. He seems to float carelessly about New Orleans, but he does it in a way that presents no conflicts or concerns. He doesn't have any strong desires. Instead the women in his life lead him through conflicts and adventures, and he
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just watches himself get dragged along. I didn't like the main character and the book reflects the same sense of vapid thoughtlessness we see in this main character. If he were more compelling, I would have enjoyed the book more.
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LibraryThing member dldbizacct
A challenging book but so worth it. Some of the most beautiful prose I've read.
LibraryThing member albertgoldfain
A good balance of plot, philosophizing, and a passive interior wanderlust ("the search" of the "seeker") . The characters seem plucked from Faulkner's south and believable in context. The existentialism is "lightweight" in that it arises simply from Binx not making any progress from his readymade
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worldview at the outset.
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LibraryThing member tzelman
A dreamy, rich New Orleans moviegoer searches for commitment in life--evocatively written but ultimately not very interesting. Perhaps I missed something. Worth a reread?
LibraryThing member cattylj
What's the big stink? Holden Caulfield grows up and is still dissatisfied with the world and the people in it. Maybe I'll come back to this when I'm older, but at this point in my life it's just not for me.
LibraryThing member Y2Ash
For anyone who has ever felt truly lost in life, stranded in the ambiguity of what to do with their lives and find other ways to pass the time and find some sort of semblance of happiness, this novel is first you.

I can identify with Binx, the protagonist, because of his eternal struggle for his
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search for seemingly something more yet being content in his little nook of the world he's carved out. Just like Kerorac's On the Road, The Moviegoer made me nostalgic for a time I was never part of I missed it all the same.
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LibraryThing member Y2Ash
For anyone who has ever felt truly lost in life, stranded in the ambiguity of what to do with their lives and find other ways to pass the time and find some sort of semblance of happiness, this novel is first you.

I can identify with Binx, the protagonist, because of his eternal struggle for his
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search for seemingly something more yet being content in his little nook of the world he's carved out. Just like Kerorac's On the Road, The Moviegoer made me nostalgic for a time I was never part of I missed it all the same.
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Original publication date

1961
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