Helpful Score: 2
I liked this enough, but to me it seemed a little strange that it got such strong kudos and that it won an award. I found it a bit hard to follow at times, some of the characters didn't seem to be well-defined so I'd find myself paging back to re-read parts to make sure I didn't miss a critical point.
Helpful Score: 1
Interesting book... and rated by some as one of the best novels of the 20th century. I wouldn't go that far.
Helpful Score: 1
The protagonist, Binx Bolling, the "moviegoer", inhabits a world that is a strange admixture of ordinary life and work in suburban New Orleans and the celluloid reality of the movies. Percy seduces the reader into this light-and-shadow realm with some expertly drawn characters.Binx is happy in a movie, even a bad movie; the reader will be held by this novel, unsettling though it may be.
Very strange book. I sought it after it was mentioned in another book that I thoroughly enjoyed, The Year of Fog. I don't enjoy a book that sends me to google on every other page. It's great to look up new words, but this author's references were too obscure to make sense in context. Good thing this was a short book as I almost gave up several times.
Read this in college. Interesting... very academia!
"The Moviegoer", an intimation rather than a statement of mortality and the inevitability of that condition, is a truthful novel with shocks of recognition and spasms of nostalgia for every-or nearly every-American.
This was a strange book, but it was beautifully written so I had no trouble finishing it. I enjoyed his characterizations and was disappointed that I couldn't understand his "search" for enlightenment.
Percy's first book. I don't feel the book is to be taken as a literal representation of everyday life. For me it is more of an allegorical look at the difficulties of getting through modern life.
Author listed as Percy Walker is really Walker Percy.
Novel set in U.S. South.
Novel set in U.S. South.
National Book award winner!
winner, National Book Award