Writing style
Essayistic · Lyrical · Poetic · Witty
The Moviegoer
Literary fiction · Tragicomedy
- First published
- 1961
- Print length
- 241 pagesVintage International, 1998
National Book Award for Fiction, 1962
Description
Binx Bolling is a young New Orleans stockbroker who moves through postwar life with the uneasy sense that ordinary existence has become unreal. Haunted by war, family strain, and cultural dislocation, he retreats into daydreams and finds the manufactured worlds of movies and books more immediate than his own routines. Around Mardi Gras, his dissatisfaction becomes a spiritual search that carries him through New Orleans, Chicago, and the Gulf Coast. Work, romance, and the demands of friends and relatives repeatedly interrupt his detached observations, forcing him to consider what commitment might require. Lightly comic and poetic, the novel turns Binx’s wandering into an existential inquiry about faith, identity, and how to live within the everyday world.
Reading profile
About this profile
Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).
- Writing
- How much attention the sentences and language require.
- Ideas
- How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
- Structure
- How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
- Background knowledge
- Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
- Emotional intensity
- Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.
Pace
Measured
Tone
Detached · Philosophical · Playful · Wistful
Structure
Linear
Focus
Character · Ideas · Relationships
Emotional intensity
3 / 5
Reading complexity
1–5 · higher means more demanding- Writing
- 4 / 5
- Ideas
- 4 / 5
- Structure
- 3 / 5
- Background knowledge
- 2 / 5
Themes
More by Walker Percy
Apple BooksBook details
For the print edition listed above.
- Publisher
- Vintage International
- Language
- English
- ISBN
- 9780375701962
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