- Hardcover: 240 pages
- Publisher: Scholarly Book Services Inc (Jun 27 2002)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0807126802
- ISBN-13: 978-0807126806
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.2 x 2.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 590 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,144,304 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Library Journal
By now, the tale of Toole's sprawling comic novel of New Orleans, A Confederacy of Dunces, lives on as a modern literary legend. A young novelist writes what he thinks is his masterpiece, is rejected by a famous New York publisher, and commits suicide only to be published posthumously and win the Pulitzer. But in this almost hagiographic account, first-time authors Nevils and Hardy reveal a story that is not quite so simple. Raised in New Orleans by a mostly distant and later mentally disturbed father and a clinging mother, Toole developed the love of reading early. When he finished Confederacy, he sent it to Simon and Schuster, where the famous Robert Gottlieb championed the manuscript and encouraged Toole to make some changes so that the book would be more publishable. Toole refused, asked for the manuscript back, and eventually descended into depression and paranoia, blaming Gottlieb for the novel's failure. After his death, his mother urged Walker Percy to publish Confederacy. The rest is history. Here, mother and son seem to have stepped right out of the Southern Gothic of a Tennessee Williams play, but this is a sad tale of one family's descent into despair and lonely ascent into posthumous fame. Recommended for most collections, especially where Confederacy is popular. Henry Carrigan, Lancaster, PA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Book Description
The phenomenal success of John Kennedy Toole’s comic masterpiece, A Confederacy of Dunces, is now legendary, a story that has long beckoned a deeper exploration into the life, imagination, and demise of the writer responsible for one of American literature’s most memorable characters—Ignatius J. Reilly. In Ignatius Rising, René Pol Nevils and Deborah George Hardy present the first biography of Toole, drawing upon scores of interviews with contemporaries of the writer and acquaintances of his influencing mother, Thelma, as well as unpublished letters, documents, and photographs. Frank yet sympathetic, Ignatius Rising deftly describes a life that is dark, tragic, bizarre, and amazing—but luminous with the gift of laughter, a life not unlike those of Toole’s beloved characters, now loved the world over.
--This text refers to the
Paperback
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Most helpful customer reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Informative but undistinguished,
By A Customer
This review is from: Ignatius Rising: The Life of John Kennedy Toole (Hardcover)
The person who said "great subject, poor execution" pretty much nailed it. I enjoyed finally learning in detail about the background of Toole and the circumstances under which the novel was written, but this is basically a dry assemblage of facts with no real sense of Toole as a person or an artist. The correspondence between Toole and Gottlieb also says nothing enlightening about why Simon and Schuster wouldn't publish Confederacy and the authors don't even attempt a hypothesis beyond "they didn't like the Myrna Minkoff character very much". My own feeling has always been that Toole was ahead of his time. His brand of satire was far too dark and biting for the 1960s, and I think if the book had been published then there would have been an extremely negative public reaction to it - which might have been even worse for Toole than not being published at all. Either way, given the struggles he was having with depression and alcoholism it's unlikely he would have survived long enough for his true audience to emerge at the end of the following decade. Note to the guy who thinks Thelma was the "ghostwriter" of Confederacy because her letter-writing style is so much like Ignatius Reilly's - you're overlooking the obvious. Thelma wrote letters to her son the entire time he was in Puerto Rico working on the first draft of the novel. Where do you think he got it from? Thelma may have acted as a sort of twisted Muse to Toole, but I highly doubt she was capable of conceiving of such a masterpiece of comic writing, much less committing it to paper. I suppose we should be grateful towards her for finally getting it into print, even if she was motivated by her own ego as much as anything else.
2.0 out of 5 stars
Great subject, poor execution.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Ignatius Rising: The Life of John Kennedy Toole (Hardcover)
I really, really wanted to enjoy this book. However, the writing is about what you would expect from two women (who remarkably resemble Mrs. Levy) who took a writing course because they had nothing better to do. They decided to make the end-product of their course this biography. I love New Orleans, I lived uptown, and "Confederacy" is one of my favorite books. Alas, this book does give good information (typically in the form of unadulterated correspondence from Mr. Toole) about John Kennedy Toole, but the execution is stunted.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Insightful and inspiring despite the outcome,
By A Customer
This review is from: Ignatius Rising: The Life of John Kennedy Toole (Hardcover)
I've heard it said, "How said that we are cheated out of what Toole 'might' have written had he not taken his own life." I, too was depressed by this thought. The man had so much more left in him. After reading both NEON BIBLE and CONFEDERACY, I was sure no one could take his place. The closest thing I've found is an author by the name of Jackson McCrae. His writing is a combination of all the things Toole loved. It has the dark sadness of NEON BIBLE and the hilarity of CONFEDERACY. And it amazes me that so few others have followed in the literary footsteps of Toole.
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