It’s a rare depressed 17-year-old that can express that angst in a subtle and compelling novel. John Kennedy Toole was not yet employing his outrageous sense of humor when he wrote this (he later wrote A Confederacy of Dunces), which makes this a bit of a dismal, Salinger-esque read. I’m confident that Holden Caulfield fans would appreciate it. I did, though it left me sad that Toole didn’t fare better in the literary (and existential) world.
3 responses to “Book: The Neon Bible / John Kennedy Toole”
netflix has the movie: http://www.netflix.com/MovieDisplay?movieid=796854&trkid=189530&strkid=7002754_0_0
It doesn’t rate many stars, like the book.
Also, perhaps not everyone knows that John Kennedy
Toole died very young, at 32 I think (1969), and his
award-winning novel, Confederacy of Dunces, was
published post-humously? Is this common knowledge
and I’m just out of the loop?
I’m presently reading The World Is Flat, by the NYTimes writer Thomas Friedman. It’s a really interesting look at outsourcing. I’m only just into it a hundred pages (it’s a big book) but it’s right up your alley, I think.
I think my copy of A Confederacy of Dunces had a short bio on Toole in it, and this book had a much more in-depth background story. There’s a pretty good Wikipedia
entry on him too.
Thanks for the recommendation!