The Moviegoer is one of the books on the list that I had never heard of before jumping into this project. There's some mystique about a book one hasn't ever heard of. I suppose I expected it to be boring or difficult to read. I don't know why I make such negative assumptions, and The Moviegoer has proved me wrong.
It's by Walker Percy, the young man holding his leg up in the photograph; MD-gone-author and National Book Award winner. Randomly, it seems he went to medical school with my grandmother, and they probably lived in the same dorm.
So far, this is my favorite presentation of character. The protagonist and narrator is Jack or Binx, just turning 30 and floating between two families in Mardi Gras'd New Orleans. From my perspective - as a woman who just turned 30 - I find him curious and entirely unsympathetic at the same time. I love the feeling of discomfort that I get from Binx and his descriptions of the other characters in the book.
Now I proved my assumptions wrong, I am starting to wonder why my knowledge of literature is so incomplete. What else did I miss as an English major? It is true, I focused my studies on pre-19th century literature and poetry. But I am simply baffled that I hadn't even heard of this book before, not to mention others on the list that I won't prejudge so hastily. So here's the question: am I at fault, did I just not pay close enough attention or did I skip some good courses? or is there a major gap in what any average middle class American, even English majors, read these days?
