The Neon Bible [Paperback]

John Kennedy Toole (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 12, 1994

John Kennedy Toole—who won a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for his best-selling comic masterpiece A Confederacy of Dunces—wroteThe 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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Written by the late Toole at age 16, this novel on its surface has little in common with his Pulitzer Prize-winning A Confederacy of Dunces . Whereas Dunces is, in Walker Percy's words, "a great rumbling farce of Falstaffian dimensions" satirizing modern society via a cast of grotesque New Orleans characters, the early novel is a lyrical attempt at realism in which social criticism is implied but not stated. Growing up in a small town in rural Mississippi, David gradually learns the painful lessons of religious, racial, social and sexual bigotry, and comes to perceive the need to defend himself, a reluctant outsider, from people; in Dunces , Ignatius Reilly, who rallies around the cause of social isolation and misanthropy, has long practiced a vigorous campaign against the evils of society. One novel chronicles an awakening, the other an uproarious and bizarre plan of action. Though interesting to read as a naive effort by a writer who later far surpassed it, The Neon Bible is a compendium of authorial first steps and missteps, from awkwardly obvious moralizing to mawkishness and improbable melodrama.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

This youthful novel was the only substantial writing left by Toole, who won a posthumous Pulitzer Prize in 1981 for his modern comic classic, A Confederacy of Dunces (he killed himself in 1969). Court action has finally cleared the way for publication of the present work, written when Toole was just 16 and left in pieces to his heirs. While far from the masterpiece Toole would write later in his life, this story of a poor boy growing up in a small, claustrophobic, closed-minded Southern town in the 1940s, is an astonishing accomplishment for an adolescent. Narrator David lives with his mother, who is never fully herself after his father dies in World War II, and his gaudy Aunt Mae, a bleached-blonde roadhouse singer in her 60s. The story is familiar and believable, a tantalizing reminder of the talent that has been lost. It deserves a wide audience.
- Ann H. Fisher, Radford P.L., Va.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Grove Press; 1st Evergreen Ed. 1st Printing, 1990 edition (January 12, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802132073
• ISBN-13: 978-0802132079
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #91,124 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

108 of 110 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful work from a Master, April 24, 2000

By 

Jack L. Keller "Avid Reader" (Federal Way, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Neon Bible (Paperback)

I just finished reading The Neon Bible for the second time. Having read A Confederacy of Dunces years ago (and several times) I didn't know quite what to expect. Further, since I knew this was written at age 16 and withheld from print for years, I expected something a bit unpolished and simple. (To be honest I felt this might be another fine example of 20th Century money grubbing by hangers on.) This book is surely neither unpolished or simple. The story unfolds in a fashion that makes it hard to beleive that such a young author could have had so much inate skill. The charaters are real and well detailed. The story pulls you along but allows you to enjoy your trip. I cannot think of another book that fits in this class. The southern flavor compares well with Welty, Edgerton, O'Connor and Sams. Well worth the investment of reading it twice.

41 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Of itself, October 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Neon Bible (Paperback)

In and of itself, this book is wonderful; pure and honest prose. What is truly amazing beyond the pithy language is the fact that a 16 year old wrote it. We all know the author for his fantastically famous C.O.D., and for those of us who love that book, this book is a treasure. An insight. Clearly, this author had many "voices" and at the age of 16, his "voice" was quite different. And quite wonderful. Having read both books many times, I still can't believe the same author write them. What a person of such enormous depth he must have been. And how tragic that he never got to experience the praise that was eventually lavished upon him. Priase he so fully deserved.

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Toole's Many Tools, October 28, 1997

By 

[e-mail] (Fort Worth, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Neon Bible (Paperback)

Toole wrote only two books in his short life, and what markedly differing books they are! THE NEON BIBLE, although published last, was the first of Toole's novels, written when he was just a teen. While it lacks the much-touted satirical humor found in A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES, THE NEON BIBLE is a valiant first effort, one deserving of the praise which came to Toole too late to provide the publishing opportunity he longed for.

Author Florence King has likened this novel to TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. And while it has much in common with the storytelling approach of Harper Lee's book, it more accurate to call THE NEON BIBLE a short, Southern version of A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN, told from the male perspective, of course. We listen, interested, as David tells us the story of his childhood in an isolated valley community. In his own way, David learns what Christianity is and is not. And as a young man he makes a difficult but realistic discovery: "They used to tell us in school to think for yourself, but you couldn't do that in the town."

I gave THE NEON BIBLE a 9, not a 10, primarily because of some unexplained anomolies in the plot. For example, he knows his Aunt Mae is not coming back for him, yet he quits his good job anyway, and we never know why. Plot points such as that one make you feel that the character has stopped thinking like a real person for a while.

Vastly different from his second, Pulitzer-Prize winning novel, THE NEON BIBLE shows us that Toole had many tools, and that he refined them over the years of his short, unrecognized career. People who speculate about his potential as an author are more than justified. I, too, find myself wondering what we've missed by his absence . . . .