A review by 5teverin0
The Moviegoer by Walker Percy

4.0

I picked up this book because I had read that it contained Stoic themes, and I am a student of that philosophy. I am not ashamed to admit that I had some difficulty finding said themes, as well as with parsing the book in general. I am also not ashamed to admit that, despite this, I very much want to read the book again.

Part of the difficulty I had with this book can be attributed to its age, and to the somewhat dated nature of the language. But those words, expressions and turns of phrase that are seldom heard today are what makes Percy's prose so delightful to read. Even when I was not quite sure of his meaning, the sheer beauty of his phrasing carried me through and made we want to keep reading.

The characters are, on the surface, somewhat two-dimensional. However, I quickly realized that they almost all had much more going on under the surface than was at first apparent. This made them somewhat of a mystery to me, and compounded the difficulty I had with the story, but it is also what makes me want to dive back in to the book again - there is much more to learn and understand, and consequently much more to gain from this enigmatic work.