The Moviegoer

By: Walker Percy

Narrated by: Christopher Hurt

A winner of the National Book Award, The Moviegoer established Walker Percy as an insightful and grimly humorous storyteller. It is the tale of Binx Bolling, a 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, some spiritual truth to anchor him.

Binx's life floats casually along until one fateful Mardi Gras week, when a bizarre series of events leads him to his unlikely salvation. In his half-brother Lonnie, who is confined to a wheelchair and soon to die, and his stepcousin Kate, whose predicament is even more ominous, Binx begins to find the sort of "certified reality" that had eluded him everywhere but at the movies.

©1961 Walker Percy (P)1992 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"In a gentle Southern accent narrator Christopher Hurt delivers the story with a slow, lazy lilt which suits the text and evokes a pervading spiritual emptiness." ( AudioFile)
"Clothed in originality, intelligence, and a fierce regard for man's fate....Percy has a rare talent for making his people look and sound as though they were being seen and heard for the first time by anyone." ( Time)

The Moral Project

It wasn't until I had strolled around several blocks of the French Quarter (or most of the novel) with the charming narrator Binx that I realized I had joined Binx on a journey, or a search...a Camu, Kierkegaard or Frankl search...for meaning and purpose. One of *those kinds* of books, (listed as one of the 100 most important books of the century)--I was a philosophy/psych major so I enjoy those kinds of books, and the aftereffect...those haunting days afterward when the book still has you in its tenacious mental grip. It is in the afterward that the power and brilliance of the The Moviegoer lies.

Percy's antagonist, Binx, is a genteel southern dandy, from big southern money, who walks the comfortable streets of his home town, narrating the scenery, mixed with a little free association and personal stories from his 30 years. He observes the day to day world, detached and unable to live outside his head. His relationships, both his dalliances with his secretaries and his family interactions, also have an observed quality void of connection since he returned from the Korean war . The novel revolves around Binx's day to day observations and his disconnect rather than any plot. It is in the days after that last page that this novel, and its project, crystallizes in the reader. Not every reader enjoys the thoughtful effort necessary to understand this enigmatic novel; The Moviegoer requires the readers participation in the creative process and some deep thinking--the legacy of Walker Percy's Christian existential philosophies, and truly great writing. To write a review that does this one justice, I'll have to read again and do some deep thinking (a little slow on the grasp)--looking forward to it.

novel or philosophy?

A thin plot woven into a philosophical exercise. Worth the time but not for the story.

poignant search to fill spiritual hole in soul

Walker Percy was awarded the National Book Award for the 1961 publication of this, his debut novel.

I found the book to be a sort of Southern existentialist novel that is fairly hum-drum as Binx Bolling searches for something more.

I was disappointed. Perhaps I should search for something more; I must have missed something because I didn't get the source of the acclaim or notoriety this book received after its publication.

It's worth your time if you're from New Orleans or you're considering marrying someone who is manic-depressive. Otherwise... Well, maybe the best way to put it is to say that if I knew before purchasing this, what I now know, I would have taken a pass.

The narration was as ho-hum as the book, or maybe this was why I thought the book was so mundane. I cannot give the performance more than 3 stars.

On the verge of everything new in old New Orleans

Until #themoviegoer popped up on my list of the the #modernlibrarytop100novels , I was entirely unfamiliar with both the book and author #walkerpercy . Percy's debut novel, it is set in the late 50's as main character Jack "Binx" Bolling settles back in his hometown of New Orleans after serving in Korea to sell stock portfolios to the up and coming in Bayou Country. From a well heeled family, his father a doctor who married an nurse and himself a pre-med student at Tulane before the war, Jack grew up Catholic but abandoned faith for humanism and lives quietly in the Big Easy neighborhood of Gentilly neighborhood on Lake Pontchartrain pursuing affairs with his secretaries with getaways to the Gulf of Mexico. But mostly, he enjoys the quiet of the various movie theaters all around New Orleans. At Mardi Gras, he feels inspired to "seek God" as part of some spiritual quest fueled in part by the odd connection he feels with his mentally unbalanced cousin for whom he has strong emotions beyond familial.

While reading the book, I happened to inquire of my retired librarian mother-in-law if she had ever heard of the book. in her 90's but sharp as a tack, she immediately recalled the book, author Walker Percy and all his other books which she read over the years. I was taken with her face of nostalgia as she recalled how Percy had been one of her favorite writers as a young women who herself grew up in the South as a progressive women enraptured with the crop of New South writers documenting a slowly evolving South in the shadow of both Jim Crow and the nascent Civil Rights Movement. The book won the U.S. #nationalbookawardforfiction .

Christopher Hurt's performance on Audible really brought the work to life and I will be looking for more of his projects as well as more Percy I'm the future.

#americanliterature #readtheworld #readtheworldchallenge #globalreadingchallenge #neworleans

philosophy literature

I heard of this author from the writings of one of my favorite authors, Mr Shelby Foote. Their writing styles are similar and both display cynicism, irony, and humor in their literature. This was my first Percy novel and I look forward to more!

A 'Modern' Classic

A character study about a detached, young man who distances himself from meaningful relationships because he's too analytical, too 'catergorizing' about his life and experiences.
He's too much of an observer--a Moviegoer.

Brilliant writer and storyteller!

We are still dealing with the same truths Walker Percy wrote about in the 60’s. He’s a brilliant writer and thinker who’s books should be read more outside of being a Literature class in universities.

A lot of existentialism and less narrative

If you're looking for "a good story" this probably isn't for you. Thought provoking and well written but can be confusing and a chore to read.

Nice but not Essential

Nice but not Essential

I have never heard of this book but found it on several best of lists. The writing is excellent and perhaps at the time (1961) was a bit groundbreaking as a mild southern poetic exploration of existentialist ideas. I thoroughly enjoyed the book but given much existentialist water under the bridge, I did not find it the essential read I hope for.

It is short, with little action and little character evolution, the writing is light, slow, and poetic.
If you are not at all familiar with existentialist angst this is among the easiest of light introductions.

The narration was perfect, clear and engaging with excellent slow, repressed emotionality.

A Defining Without Explaining

This Moviegoer's lack of plot and its minimally affected narration style are deliberate. The reader is to be left with a gnawing (un)feeling, by contact exposure, that burdens the main character.