ISBN: 0802197329 9780802197320

Category: Fiction / Literary

Page count: 178

<b>“A moving evocation of the small-town South in the mid-twentieth century” that “belongs on the shelf with the works of Flannery O’Connor, Carson McCullers, and Eudora Welty” (<i>Orlando Sentinel</i>).</b><br>  <br> John Kennedy Toole—who won a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for his best-selling comic masterpiece <i>A Confederacy of Dunces</i>—wrote <i>The Neon Bible</i> 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.<br>  <br> “Heartfelt emotion, communicated in clean direct prose . . . a remarkable achievement.” —Michiko Kakutani, <i>The New York Times</i><br>  <br> “John Kennedy Toole’s tender, nostalgic side is as brilliantly effective as his corrosive satire. If you liked <i>To Kill A Mockingbird</i> you will love <i>The Neon Bible</i>.” —Florence King<br>  <br> “Shockingly mature. . . . Even at sixteen, Toole knew that the way to write about complex emotions is to express them simply.” —Kerry Luft, <i>Chicago Tribune</i>