Walker Percy & The Moviegoer

This post is more of a promissory note, a reminder to myself to write more about the genius of Walker Percy's first novel, The Moviegoer.

First off, do not be deceived by the title; it is artful misdirection. The narrator is a keen observer of everyday life.

In a brilliant sequence near the start of the novel, the narrator is walking down the street, just behind the actor William Holden, (who is evidently in New Orleans for a film shoot). As he strolls in the wake of Holden, the narrator observes the ripple effect of bystanders noticing that they're in the midst of a 'celebrity', and he further notes ways that their subtle reactions are reflexively constitutive of Holden's celebrity.

The novel just gets better from there, with reflections on 'the search' that every wakeful person is (or should be?) engaged in...

"The search is what anyone would undertake if he were not sunk in the everydayness of his own life. To become aware of the possibility of the search is to be onto something. Not to be onto something is to be in despair."

-- The Moviegoer, pg. 13.