The Neon Bible - Softcover
John Kennedy Toole, who won a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for his bestselling 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.
The Neon Bible opens with the narrator, a young man named David, on a train, leaving the small Southern town he’s grown up in for the first time. What unspools is the tender and tragic coming-of-age story of a lonely child, a story that revolves around David’s unorthodox friendship with his great-aunt Mae―a former stage performer who is fiercely at odds with the conservative townspeople―and the everyday toll of living in an environment of religious fanaticism.
The Neon Bible opens with the narrator, a young man named David, on a train, leaving the small Southern town he’s grown up in for the first time. What unspools is the tender and tragic coming-of-age story of a lonely child, a story that revolves around David’s unorthodox friendship with his great-aunt Mae―a former stage performer who is fiercely at odds with the conservative townspeople―and the everyday toll of living in an environment of religious fanaticism.
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About the Author:
John Kennedy Toole (1937-1969) is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Confederacy of Dunces. A native of New Orleans, he graduated from Tulane University and received a master’s degree in English from Columbia University. He taught at Hunter College, the University of Southwestern Louisiana, and Dominican College in New Orleans.
Review:
Praise for The Neon Bible:
“Lyrical and elegiac . . . The Neon Bible not only stands as a remarkable achievement for a sixteen-year-old writer, but it also serves as a testament to the genuine talents of Toole.”―Michiko Kakutani, New York Times
“A powerful novel that belongs on the shelf with the works of Flannery O’Connor, Carson McCullers, and Eudora Welty.”―William McKeen, Orlando Sentinel
“John Kennedy Toole’s tender, nostalgic side is as brilliantly effective as his corrosive satire.”―Florence King
“[The Neon Bible] affirms Toole’s extraordinary ability; and, even more than before, it leaves the reader wondering what might have been.”―Kerry Luft, Chicago Tribune
“Lyrical and elegiac . . . The Neon Bible not only stands as a remarkable achievement for a sixteen-year-old writer, but it also serves as a testament to the genuine talents of Toole.”―Michiko Kakutani, New York Times
“A powerful novel that belongs on the shelf with the works of Flannery O’Connor, Carson McCullers, and Eudora Welty.”―William McKeen, Orlando Sentinel
“John Kennedy Toole’s tender, nostalgic side is as brilliantly effective as his corrosive satire.”―Florence King
“[The Neon Bible] affirms Toole’s extraordinary ability; and, even more than before, it leaves the reader wondering what might have been.”―Kerry Luft, Chicago Tribune
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherGrove Press
- Publication date2019
- ISBN 10 0802128866
- ISBN 13 9780802128867
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages176
- Rating
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