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A rediscovered American classic from the 1960s
When The Moviegoer was first published in 1961 it won the National Book Award and established Walker Percy as one of the most exciting new voices in American fiction. In his portrait of a boyish New Orleans stockbroker wavering between ennui and the longing for redemption, Percy managed to combine Bourbon Street elegance with the spiritual urgency of a Russian novel.
On the eve of his thirtieth birthday, Binx Bolling is adrift. He occupies himself with dallying with his secretaries and going to movies, which provide him with the "treasurable moments" lacking in his real life. But one fateful Mardi Gras, Binx embarks on a quest - a harebrained search for authenticity that outrages his family, endangers his fragile cousin, Kate, and sends him reeling through the gaudy chaos of the French quarter. Wry and wrenching, rich in irony and romance, The Moviegoer is a genuine American classic.
Winner of the National Book Award
"Some novels simply do not go away. They lodge in your consciousness, expanding rather than disappearing after the last page is turned...Their mysteries deepen with each reading. Your curiosity about them is never quenched. The Moviegoer has proved to be just such a book for me, as it has for countless others" - Stephen Amidon, New Statesman
"Breathtakingly brilliant" New York Times
"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 if they were being seen and heard for the first time by anyone" - Time
"A brilliant novel...Percy touches the rim of so many human mysteries" -Harper's
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