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3.45 AVERAGE
3.45 AVERAGE
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
“This is another thing about the world which is upsidedown: all the friendly and likable people seem dead to me; only the haters seem alive.”
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 the year of Our Lord 2020. I'm not sorry to have read this, but I did not find it timeless.
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
lighthearted
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Book #20 completed for Book Riot Challenge: "A National Book Award winner"
I'm not really sure what I was supposed to take away from The Moviegoer. Maybe I'm not supposed to take away anything. The language, prose and rhythm were beautiful and flowed naturally, so I can see in that way why it won the National Book Award, but the story seemed to lack something. A young businessman is on what he calls "a search", a way to escape ennui and malaise. But basically, he just ends up marrying his cousin and has to be her babysitter because she's got mental problems. Maybe it's one of those set ups to allow one to imagine the rest of the story. I don't know.
I'm not really sure what I was supposed to take away from The Moviegoer. Maybe I'm not supposed to take away anything. The language, prose and rhythm were beautiful and flowed naturally, so I can see in that way why it won the National Book Award, but the story seemed to lack something. A young businessman is on what he calls "a search", a way to escape ennui and malaise. But basically, he just ends up marrying his cousin and has to be her babysitter because she's got mental problems. Maybe it's one of those set ups to allow one to imagine the rest of the story. I don't know.
The Stranger and Nausea set in New Orleans. Some pretty heavy reflections on "everydayness" and the terrible feeling of routine. Very very relevant with the amount of media people (myself included) consume today.
One extra star because there is some beautiful writing in here, but inasmuch as there is a plot, it is just about my least favorite trope: boring wealthy person ponders the meaning of life and struggles with society's expectations. This iteration of that story is particularly snooze worthy. Ride along with our protagonist as he, uh, oogles girls on buses, oogles his secretaries, reminisces about his frat brothers, watches family members fish in the swamp, and rides trains to and from Chicago.
I get that this kind of narrative might work for some folks but it basically worked as a sedative for me. Somehow this made 240 pages feel like a interminable slog.
I get that this kind of narrative might work for some folks but it basically worked as a sedative for me. Somehow this made 240 pages feel like a interminable slog.
For most of the time I was reading this, I wasn't sure I liked it. The conjuring of a sense of place and atmosphere was quite fine. The sleek prose was nice, although the author seemed at times far too proud of himself for having gone to medical school and tosses around medical jargon rather unnecessarily and show-offishly (Walker Percy and I are alumni of the same med school, which is one of the things that drew me to pick up this book in the first place). Some of the characters are very well drawn (e.g., Aunt Emily, who is given an absolutely wonderful speech at the end), others less so (e.g., Sharon, who is only shown to us through the lens of the protagonist's emotionally detached and patronizing lust and therefore never becomes more than a highly polished surface despite occupying a lot of space in the novel). The protagonist's emotional immaturity irritated me (the protagonist is a 29-year-old man but seemed to me to act younger), as did the dated sexual and racial politics of the book as a whole (the book was published in 1961, and while it's modern in some ways -- the frankness and authenticity with which it treats bodily functions and mental health, for example -- it's far from modern in others). Still, the book started to grow on me in the penultimate quarter, where we see the main character visit his half-siblings and we finally start to see him show a bit of heart, especially in his bond with his younger half-brother Lonnie. Then the final quarter of the book happened, and I was surprised to find that that was very very very good -- I found myself underlining passage after passage, page after page, something I had not done for the first 80% of the book. Really, it's hardly an exaggeration to say that the entire heart of the book -- the entire plot, the entire emotional core of it -- is contained in that last 20%. The journey to get there was frustrating, but it paid off in the end.
I don't think I made it more than 50 pages. I've already forgotten it.
Edit: Honestly, I think about this book more and I like it less and less, especially as I read and watch more stuff. I’ve read more beautiful prose, experienced more intense plots, found more thought-provoking ideas, and the like, in many other books. The four-star rating I gave it was mostly enjoyment, and the feeling that I should rate it highly because it was a “classic” book. Really though, I honestly didn’t find much to enjoy other than the book’s sheer enjoyability, if that makes sense.
There are books more worth your time.
__________________________________________________________________
I heard about The Moviegoer from a visit to the Wikipedia page about philosophical novels. The descriptions on the back of the book and on Wikipedia promised a Kierkegaardian jaunt. I was sold, so I picked it up at a used bookstore.
Not knowing TOO much about Kierkegaard, I do think the inspiration is mostly nominal. Some of his verbiage is appropriated here and there, but the novel didn’t give too much page-space to overt philosophizing, other than a few key moments.
Otherwise, the novel is erratic, uneven, superficial, but beautiful, absurd, and extremely fun to read. I laughed out loud three or four times, when a book getting me to do that even once is extremely rare.
The moviegoer is a good time. Give it a shot.
There are books more worth your time.
__________________________________________________________________
I heard about The Moviegoer from a visit to the Wikipedia page about philosophical novels. The descriptions on the back of the book and on Wikipedia promised a Kierkegaardian jaunt. I was sold, so I picked it up at a used bookstore.
Not knowing TOO much about Kierkegaard, I do think the inspiration is mostly nominal. Some of his verbiage is appropriated here and there, but the novel didn’t give too much page-space to overt philosophizing, other than a few key moments.
Otherwise, the novel is erratic, uneven, superficial, but beautiful, absurd, and extremely fun to read. I laughed out loud three or four times, when a book getting me to do that even once is extremely rare.
The moviegoer is a good time. Give it a shot.