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Title: The Neon Bible by John Kennedy Toole, W. Kenneth Holditch ISBN: 0-8021-1108-4 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: May, 1989 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.27 (22 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Wonderful work from a Master
Comment: 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.
Rating: 4
Summary: The Country Book
Comment: There is no doubt in my mind that John Kennedy Toole was a colossal genius. "A Confederacy of Dunces" is one of my all-time favourite books (and steadily makes its way up the list each time I re-read it), a rambunctious, comic masterpiece on a par with "Tristram Shandy".
While "Neon Bible" could not be more different from "A Confederacy of Dunces", it is for all that something of a treasure.
I think of it like this: "A Confederacy of Dunces" is a city novel (specifically, a New Orleans novel). "Neon Bible" is a country novel. The foot has been taken off the accelerator. The pace has gone slack. You get time to smell the coffee, look up at the birds in the trees, float downstream on Huck Finn's raft. All that.
The narrator of "Neon Bible" (like John Kennedy Toole at the time of writing, funnily enough) is a kid. He watches various lives fall apart. He attempts to become an adult (he attempts to reconcile himself to adult activity and develop adult understanding), and he fails and he runs away.
In lots of ways, "Neon Bible" is like a bird that settles, to your surprise, on your hand. Only you are clumsy (you are Lenny from "Of Mice and Men"). You crush the pretty bird and the end of the book is (quite remarkably, and out of nowhere) the bloody remnants of all those organs and bones crushed between your fingers.
You never see it coming. The book reads like a painting. It's so beautiful (and you ask yourself: how did a sixteen year old write this?) you want to touch it, only when you do, the paint gets all over your hands. Everything is ruined. By which I mean to say that it isn't until the end that you realise the peace that pervades the book is - like the little bird in your hand - fragile and easily lost.
Rating: 4
Summary: a small surprise like a well cooked appetizer
Comment: The four stars merely represents my own opinion and should not bias anybody on the quality of this book. The only other book that John Kennedy Toole wrote is a marvel called "Confederacy of the Dunces". I was so impressed by this later book that I decided to buy Neon Bible. I will recommend that before reading Neon Bible you should try to get your hands on "Confederacy............" - in that book you will find a more broad illustrations of the talents of Kennedy. It is a real shame that he had to leave us at such an early age but his creations help us to remember him.
"Neon Bible" was written by Kennedy when he was almost a kid so the passages do not have the craft of Fitzgerald and Hemingway but that does not reduce it literary value. Actually the language is very directive and narrative without much flourishes. The story, sometimes feels more like biographical, is about the life of a small boy in the deep south .......
The portrayal of life as it was in the south after the depression is extremely interesting. I do not have enough knowledge to say it is accurate or not but you never get a surreal feeling i.e. nothing seems fake. Actually the succinct to-the-point description sometimes surprised me - but even then you will not loose interest for a second. The central character of the book is the narrator himself and around him are his parents, aunt Mae, the teachers (specially Mrs. Watkins, Mr. Farney), Bobby Lee Taylor and so many others and each of then draw attention in their own way. Actually it was little funny to read about the fight between the "state" and the "church" - to me the same fight is going on today except for the fact that under religious zealots like Aschroft the church is more powerful than before. The other fact to notice is the position of the blacks and they seem to be treated less significantly than the pet animals. The narrator is not born with a silver spoon in his mouth and has to fight to achieve every little bit but that does not deter him from moving ahead with his life. Here we also have to remember that moving ahead with life does not necessarily mean to become rich and have a nice career. Sometimes life means just survival and with everybody around it and to sacrifice for the ones who are less fortunate. You can buy this book and keep it in your collection as a portrait of American society in 40s. It also shows the effects of the war on a family and the society as a whole- alas that was a necessary war. I wish Mr. Bush could have read this book before attacking Iraq - alas he does not read.
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Title: A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole ISBN: 0802130208 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: November, 1987 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Ignatius Rising: The Life of John Kennedy Toole by Rene Pol Nevils, Deborah George Hardy ISBN: 0807126802 Publisher: Louisiana State University Press Pub. Date: June, 2001 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Managing Ignatius : The Lunacy of Lucky Dogs and Life in New Orleans by Jerry Strahan ISBN: 0767903242 Publisher: Broadway Pub. Date: 16 February, 1999 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
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Title: New Orleans Stories: Great Writers on the City by John Miller, Genevieve Anderson, Andrei Codrescu ISBN: 0811800598 Publisher: Chronicle Books Pub. Date: May, 1992 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston ISBN: 0060931418 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 December, 1998 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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