In this National Book Award Winner, John Bickerson "Binx" Bolling is a 29 year old, small-time suburban New Orleans stockbroker. To this point in his life, he's been content to carry on "love affairs" with a succession of secretaries, "the Lindas", & frequent the movies.

"I am a model tenant and a model citizen and take pleasure in doing all that is expected of me. My wallet is full of identity cards, library cards, credit cards.... It is a pleasure to carry out the duties of a citizen and to receive in return a receipt or a neat styrene card with one's name on it certifying, so to speak, one's right to exist."

"I am a stock and bond broker. It is true that my family was somewhat disappointed in my choice of profession. Once I thought of going into law or medicine or even pure science. I even dreamed of doing something great. but there is much to be said for giving up such grand ambitions and living the most ordinary life imaginable..."

But things have suddenly changed, "This morning, for the first time in years, there occurred to me the possibility of a search....the search is what anyone would undertake if he were not sunk in the everydayness of his own life."

And merely, "to become aware of the possibility of the search is to be onto something. Not to be onto something is to be in despair."

So we follow Binx during one Mardi Gras as he goes in search of the something that transcends the every day.

Percy was a convert to Catholicism & his books tend to concern men who are at odds with the moral tenor of their times. It is interesting that Richard Ford's The Sportswriter  was compared to The Moviegoer, because it seems to me that Binx Bolling is in many ways a Frank Bascombe in the making. When the novel ends, & his search is presumably over, Binx has made choices that I was not confident would satisfy his desire for transcendence. I fear his search is not over.

I like Walker Percy generally, but I much prefer The Last Gentleman or even The Thanatos Syndrome.

(Reviewed:)

Grade: (C+) Orrin C. Judd

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