trade-size paperback.

from the back cover:
On the eve of his thirtieth birthday, Binx Bolling is adrift. He occupies himself dallying with his secretaries and going to movies, which provide him with the "treasurable moments" absent from 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.

While this may have been some kind of sensation back in 1962 when it won the National Book Award, it's just dull and meandering today. It was slow and boring in the first third, promising but not showing much in the second third, and just fell apart in the end. I found no methodology in his 'search for authenticity' or what exactly he was searching for. He appears to be a better person when interacting with his relatives - with the exception of Kate, where I found him to be an enabler - but Binx himself is not a likable person.

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Added to Trekwoman's Every One's a Prize Winner 3.0 bookbox.

I've had this book on my wishlist for a long time and I'm determined to give it a try.