Chatting Books Online Day 83. Today's recommended book , "Walker Percy's The Moviegoer at Fifty", first came to my attention in preparations for the 2016 Walker Percy Weekend . This collection of essays finds new and sometimes surprising ways at looking at Walker Percy's novel The Moviegoer. 50 years after it's National Book Award winning release gathered these essays on how this book influenced writers - and others - from many different walks of life.
My favorite essay in the book is by Michael Kobre and I remember listening to the story in the Temple Sinai at the 2016 event. It relates the tale of how Walker Percy was introduced to Bruce Springsteen's music by Mr. Percy's nephew Will who was a fan. After hearing the music Walker Percy wrote a "fan letter" of sorts to Springsteen in which he suggested that they were both "rarities in our professions: you as a post-modern musician, I as a writer, novelist, and philosopher" and noting their mutual "admiration for Flannery O'Connor". Now I am not going to ruin the surprise for you and tell you the outcome of the letter , you will have to read that for yourself. But suffice to say that I am sure you will appreciate these stories of searchers and wanderers and how The Moviegoer affected them .
Hardcover by LSU Press. 171 pages . $ 48 per copy
Day 83: Walker Percy's The Moviegoer at Fifty
