The Neon Bible

by John Kennedy Toole

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Book Overview: The Neon Bible

John Kennedy Toole–who won a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for his best-selling comic masterpiece A Confederacy of Dunces–wrote The Neon Bible for a literary contest at the age of sixteen. The manuscript languished in a drawer and became the subject of a legal battle among Toole’s heirs. It was only in 1989, thirty-five years after it was written and twenty years after Toole’s suicide at thirty-one, that this amazingly accomplished and evocative novel was freed for publication.

ISBN-13	9780802132079
ISBN-10	0802132073
Publisher	Grove Press
Publication Date	1994
Edition	Reprint
Language	en
Pages	162
Dimensions	in x in x in
Weight	lbs

Editorial Reviews

“Heartfelt emotion, communicated in clean direct prose . . . a remarkable achievement.”–Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

“A powerful novel that belongs on the shelf with the works of Flannery O’Connor, Carson McCullers, and Eudora Welty. It is a moving evocation of the small-town South in the mid-twentieth century, and it is an expertly crafted tale of an adolescent boy finding the courage to make the decisions to change his life.”–William McKeen, Orlando Sentinel

“John Kennedy Toole’s tender, nostalgic side is as brilliantly effective as his corrosive satire. If you liked To Kill A Mockingbird you will love The Neon Bible.”–Florence King

“Shockingly mature. . . . Even at sixteen, Toole knew that the way to write about complex emotions is to express them simply.”–Kerry Luft, Chicago Tribune

About the Author

John Kennedy Toole

John Kennedy Toole was an American novelist from New Orleans, Louisiana, best known for his novel “A Confederacy of Dunces”. Born on December 17, 1937, Toole’s prodigious talent for writing was evident from an early age. He started his writing career with a focus on literature and even received a master’s degree in English from Columbia University in 1959. His prowess as an academic also shone through in his roles as a professor at Hunter College and the University of Southwestern Louisiana.

After his first novel, ‘The Neon Bible’, written at 16, didn’t find a publisher, Toole began work on “A Confederacy of Dunces”. The quixotic novel filled with colorful characters and laced with irony and insightful social critique failed to find a publisher despite his relentless efforts. Deeply disheartened by the constant rejections, he sadly committed suicide in 1969.

Toole’s posthumous rise to fame began in 1980 when his mother Thelma successfully presented his manuscript to the author Walker Percy, who then helped publish “A Confederacy of Dunces”. The novel, celebrated for its vivid prose and spirited humor, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1981, solidifying his position among the pantheon of great authors. John Kennedy Toole, though his life was marked by tragedy, left behind a literary legacy anchored in his unique blend of humor, wit, and profound social commentary.