The Neon Bible
by John Kennedy Toole
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Book Summary Information
Author: John Kennedy TooleEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1994-01-12
ISBN: 0802132073
Number of pages: 176
Publisher: Grove Press
Book Reviews of The Neon Bible
Book Review: "Thinking people feel sorry for you is something I guess you should appreciate, but I didn't and never have."
Summary: 3 Stars
First of all, for anyone to have written a novel like this at age sixteen is nothing short of amazing. Granted, some of the description does not entirely ring true, but for a teenager to possess such acuity when it comes to people and society is remarkable. John Kennedy Toole was such a gifted observer of humanity's foibles despite his young age that "The Neon Bible" contains truths and witticisms that most writers double, and even triple his age could only hope to aspire to. Tragically, there also seems to be a world-weary edge to the novel that no sixteen year-old should have to bear, a burdensome cynicism that undoubtedly contributed to Toole's tragic suicide in 1969 at the age of thirty-two.
Toole is best remembered for his Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece, A Confederacy of Dunces (Evergreen Book) - which his mother succeeded in publishing a few years after her son's suicide. While he had tried (and failed) to get "Confederacy" published during his lifetime, Toole never intended for "The Neon Bible" to see print; he thought that it was too juvenile. But after "Confederacy" became a raging success Toole's family began to see dollar signs and, following a crass legal battle with Toole's mother, who sought to carry out her son's wishes, "The Neon Bible" was cleared for publication in 1989. The legal ordeal is outlined in the novel's introduction by W. Kenneth Holditch, who inherited the rights to "The Neon Bible" after Toole's mother's death, and who eventually lost the fight to respect Toole's wishes.
In his introduction, Holditch hopes that the two novels Toole wrote in his lifetime will "constitute testament to a genius," and they certainly do. If nothing else, reading "The Neon Bible" will make you wish that its truly gifted author had had a long, storied career to explore the full range of his talent. Is "The Neon Bible" perfect? No. It is all promise - the promise of a developing talent that was broken with Toole's unfortunate suicide. Despite its mature insights, it hews too closely to the tried-and-true. Toole had not yet found his confidence as a writer, and so he presented a somewhat clichéd coming-of-age tale that breaks few boundaries and remains steadfastly in the zone of `safe' literature. It is worthy of note, of course, but primarily as the first effort of an author who would later break many of the rules he adheres to so strictly here.
So let's give Toole an A for being so skilled so young, but let's give "The Neon Bible" a C+.
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