Book Description
John Kennedy Toole, who won a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for his best-selling comic masterpiece A Confederacy of Dunces, wrote The 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. The Neon Bible tells the story of David, a young boy growing up in a small Southern town in the 1940s. David's voice is perfectly calibrated, disarmingly funny, sad, shrewd, gathering force from page to page with an emotional directness that never lapses into sentimentality. Through it we share his awkward, painful, universally recognizable encounter with first love, we participate in boy evangelist Bobbie Lee Taylor's revival, we meet the pious, bigoted townspeople. From the opening lines of The Neon Bible, David is fully alive, naive yet sharply observant, drawing us into his world through the sure artistry of John Kennedy Toole.
Customer Reviews:
"Thinking people feel sorry for you is something I guess you should appreciate, but I didn't and never have." .......2007-08-16
First of all, for anyone to have written a novel like this at age sixteen is nothing short of amazing. Granted, some of the description does not entirely ring true, but for a teenager to possess such acuity when it comes to people and society is remarkable. John Kennedy Toole was such a gifted observer of humanity's foibles despite his young age that "The Neon Bible" contains truths and witticisms that most writers double, and even triple his age could only hope to aspire to. Tragically, there also seems to be a world-weary edge to the novel that no sixteen year-old should have to bear, a burdensome cynicism that undoubtedly contributed to Toole's tragic suicide in 1969 at the age of thirty-two.
Toole is best remembered for his Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece, A Confederacy of Dunces (Evergreen Book) - which his mother succeeded in publishing a few years after her son's suicide. While he had tried (and failed) to get "Confederacy" published during his lifetime, Toole never intended for "The Neon Bible" to see print; he thought that it was too juvenile. But after "Confederacy" became a raging success Toole's family began to see dollar signs and, following a crass legal battle with Toole's mother, who sought to carry out her son's wishes, "The Neon Bible" was cleared for publication in 1989. The legal ordeal is outlined in the novel's introduction by W. Kenneth Holditch, who inherited the rights to "The Neon Bible" after Toole's mother's death, and who eventually lost the fight to respect Toole's wishes.
In his introduction, Holditch hopes that the two novels Toole wrote in his lifetime will "constitute testament to a genius," and they certainly do. If nothing else, reading "The Neon Bible" will make you wish that its truly gifted author had had a long, storied career to explore the full range of his talent. Is "The Neon Bible" perfect? No. It is all promise - the promise of a developing talent that was broken with Toole's unfortunate suicide. Despite its mature insights, it hews too closely to the tried-and-true. Toole had not yet found his confidence as a writer, and so he presented a somewhat clichéd coming-of-age tale that breaks few boundaries and remains steadfastly in the zone of `safe' literature. It is worthy of note, of course, but primarily as the first effort of an author who would later break many of the rules he adheres to so strictly here.
So let's give Toole an A for being so skilled so young, but let's give "The Neon Bible" a C+.
masterpiece.......2007-02-17
J.K. Toole's work, written when he was 16 years old IS the great American novel. It should be studied by any serious student of English. Reading any of this man's limited work, strikes the heart with sadness at his early death. What volumes he could have produced!!!!!
Not related to The Arcade Fire.......2007-02-10
If you're an Arcade Fire fan and are buying this book, keep in mind that the band itself has stated that this book has nothing to do with their album Neon Bible.
Worth reading even without the Arcade Fire.......2007-01-22
I read this to get a jumpstart on the new audience who will likely be discovering this book in the wake of the new Arcade Fire record, and in the hope of gaining some insight into that album when it arrives. But the book is more than worthwhile in its own right.
A very quick read thanks to the simple style, the book was engrossing and despite the narrator's emotional retisance, it's hard not to sympathize with him and to be left wondering long after the book reaches its conclusion.
That Toole was able, at the age of 16, to conjure such a consistent environment and so fully formed a narrator is evidence of a talent too little shown to the wider world.
An outsiders' tale.......2005-12-16
A young boy is riding a train...
A young boy named David lives with his parents during a very poor time, around the time of The Great Depression. His mother is feeble, and his father is a frustrated, poor man who feels the pressure of providing for his family. Shortly after the beginning of the story, his Aunt Mae, who was a singer and showgirl decades ago, comes to live with them.
The town in which he lives is almost Puritanical; it's very narrow-minded, very religious in a backwards way. There is no other knowledge than that of the preacher and his lackeys. Because of this set up, most of the town is already opposed to, or irritated with Aunt Mae. With her fancy dresses, city attitude, and independence, she sticks out like a sore thumb. So, the family is poor, disliked, the mother is sick, the father is desperate, and the boy also has a problem; he's terribly shy and naïve around girls his age.
The boy, his mother and aunt deal with the daily problems caused by being the ostracized heathens in a moronic, bigoted, stereotypical hick town. Run-ins with local religious leaders, uppity rich folks, and pretty school girls ensue.
Problems and tragedy strikes as the family tries to make life meaningful, all the while struggling against the inevitableness of heartbreak, anguish, and the harsh decisions (and harsh consequences) life presents. Eventually, David finds himself with just as many questions as answers, and a new, difficult life ahead.
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The Neon Bible
Manufacturer: Grove Weidenfeld
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000I30TAA |
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Santa Biblia / Holy Bible: Reina Valera Revisada 1960 Colormax! Youth Bible, Neon Green (Rvr 1960 Colormax Youth Bible)
Manufacturer: B&H Publishing Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Imitation Leather
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ASIN: 1586402218 |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Advocate (The national gay & lesbian newsmagazine), published by Thomson Gale on March 27, 2007. The length of the article is 682 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Sounds like today.(Myth Takes)(Sound of Silver)(Neon Bible)(Sound recording review)
Author: Kurt B. Reighley
Publication:
The Advocate (The national gay & lesbian newsmagazine) (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 27, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Issue: 982
Page: 59(1)
Article Type: Sound recording review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Mississippi Quarterly, published by Mississippi State University on March 22, 1994. The length of the article is 7162 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
From the supplier: John Kennedy Toole's first novel, 'The Neon Bible,' shares many themes with his classic 'A Confederacy of Dunces,' but portrays these themes in different ways. 'The Neon Bible,' is tragic and tells the story a boy's growth and maturation while 'A Confederacy of Dunces' is satiric and tells of a grown man's desire to regain his childhood. Both works address the putrefaction of formally unspoiled values and people.
Citation Details
Title: Toole's proboscis: some effluvial concerns in 'The Neon Bible.' (John Kennedy Toole)
Author: Robert Walter Rudnicki
Publication:
The Mississippi Quarterly (Refereed)
Date: March 22, 1994
Publisher: Mississippi State University
Volume: v47
Issue: n2
Page: p221(16)
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
Amateur actors set the stage for murder...
Who in the quiet village of Chipping would kill wealthy spinster Idris Campanula? Plenty of people, among them her fellow cast members from a troubled charity production. Miss Campanula was a spiteful gossip, gleefully destroying others' lives merely for her won excitement. But once Inspector Roderick Alleyn arrives, he quickly realizes that the murderer might have killed the wrong woman-and may soon stage a repeat performance...
Customer Reviews:
Kill Off All Old-fashioned, Obnoxious Stereotypes.......2006-11-10
One of the rather large cast of characters is killed off and it's up to Insp. Alleyn to find out who done it. I found everyone in this book so obnoxious (except the Inspector) that I wish they had all been bumped off. Then Alleyn would have to discover which annoyed and bored reader had done it. (I confess, it was I.) Among the people in the village of Chipping are stereotypical frustrated old maids, stuffy clergy, really idiotic young people, really idiotic old people, etc. I have to read this for a mystery reading group to which I belong, and I'm having a tough time getting through it. I have a sense of humor, but I can't see anything funny in this work.
No One writes a puzzle mystery like Ms. Marsh........2004-08-10
Ms. Marsh is definitely one of the top writers of the classic English puzzle mystery, and this book bears that out. I thought that I had read all Ngaio Marsh books years ago, and I was going to reread some of them, but when I looked I found that there were actually a few that I missed. This book was one of those. I couldn't believe how quickly I fell back into Roderick Alleyn and his sidekick Brer Fox. It was like meeting old friends. Alleyn is unique in the detective genre. He's very much a gentleman, but smart as a whip. Ms. Marsh also does the English village mystery in style. Her characters are realistic and believable, and it feels like you can picture them as you read. In this book one of the two main spinsters in the village is murdered, and when Alleyn investigates he finds there are numerous people with motives, but do they have the right victim? Was the wrong person killed? You have to read to find out.
Top of the genre........2003-10-19
An example of Marsh at her best (although not in the top 5, hence the 4 star rating) it contains every element that's wonderful about the Inspector Alleyn series.
Originally published in 1939, OTD is set in a town run roughshod over by a pair of bloody-minded spinsters. When one of them is killed in a particularly fitting way, it's all to easy to find someone who'd be willing to kill both. Alleyn has to sort the prejudice from the truth to catch a killer in this remarkable classic mystery.
Deadly Rachmaninov.......2000-11-27
Death by a Rachmaninov Prelude is surely one of Marsh's most inspired murder methods. In addition, we have a great village setting, a good mystery plot and Marsh's typical wit. For Christie fans unfamiliar with Marsh, this one is a great introduction.
The Best Marsh Mystery I've Read (so far)!.......2000-06-28
Overture to Death is Marsh's best for a few reasons: 1) The background of the murder (English village life) is extremely well drawn. 2) The characters are so well-defined, you feel as if you know them. 3) The method of murder is the cleverest I've seen yet, from Dame Marsh, and is completely plausible. One of the reasons that people look down on mystery novels, is that often they are about plot with scant attention paid to the literary aspects. Not so with Ngaio Marsh.
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- Precise yet Imaginative Graphic Storytelling
- Only Wish It Is All in Color!
- This makes my top 10 list of essential graphic novels
- 2001 Nights and other great worlds
- A Manga Odyssey
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2001 Nights, Volume 1: The Death Trilogy Overture (2001 Nights)
Manufacturer: VIZ Media LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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2001 Nights, Volume 2: Journey Beyond Tommorow (2001 Nights)
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Scarlet Traces
ASIN: 1569310564 |
Customer Reviews:
Precise yet Imaginative Graphic Storytelling.......2007-02-04
Yukinobu Hoshino's 2001 Nights is not your average manga.
With precise and detailed drawings, and a tangible indebtedness to Arthur C. Clarke, Hoshino tells in a series of short stories the future of mankind's journey into space. Beginning with a classic Cold War sf story, continuing on with the discovery of life--of sorts--on the moon, and furthering outward to the utmost boundaries of the solar system, Hoshino tells his stories with steadily increasing imagination, pulling the reader gradually from more mundane hard sf to weirdly handled (but very Clarkeian) cosmic and religious issues in the volume's final, lengthy chapter, "Lucifer Rising," which smacks of Clarke's "The Star" as well as Gene Wolfe's "All the Hues of Hell."
Not only are these excellent comics, they are some of the best sf short stories you're likely to read, though Hoshino sometimes plays fast and loose with science if it helps the plot.
Only Wish It Is All in Color!.......2003-11-11
Okay, ditto all the other glowing reviews; I normally don't post my opinions unless it's different from others', but this is one of the few times when a product has got me so enthused that I simply must join in the praise. IT'S GREAT!...I got chills all over just like I first did as a kid when it dawned on me how vast the universe could be, and how alone humankind seems in it...I must say, this is quite an effective "twist" on one's usual expectations of Science Fiction, a twist which actually in effect restores the sense of melancholia which a deep, prolonged contemplation of outer space usually seems to instill sooner or later...EXCELLENT! I mean, what if -- WHAT IF -- we are really, truly, all alone in this great universe?? The statistical probabilities of this seem to make such a case so unlikely it may as well be impossible -- but WHAT IF it is just the case that we are indeed simply alone, that there is really no one out there? After all, would that seem any more improbable than the very fact of the universe's very existence?
Many of us have already given up on notions of an anthropomorphic sky god and its derivatives -- but how many are prepared for the notion that there may well be no other intelligent life forms out there, that *WE* are actually all there is to self-reflective cognition?? Again, this may seem like a cop-out, but it seems easy enough (certainly typical enough) for Science Fiction to speculate on other intelligences, whereas the genre seems to hardly ever suggest the truly more mind-boggling alternative, that we're "just it", and that's all there is to "it"!...the effect achieved is much, much more sublime and breath-takingly, enduringly poetic....
Has Yukinobu Hoshino done any other stuff, I wonder??? Now that I'm "onto him", I'm gonna go look for his other works....
This makes my top 10 list of essential graphic novels.......2002-06-13
This is an amazing trilogy (read my other 2 reviews of vols. 2 & 3). The below reviews are so accurate to what I want to say, that I won't repeat them. I love this series. It's some of the best sci-fi comics I've ever read. There's an overwhelming sense of vastness to the universe and a sad feeling for mankind in the stories - no matter how far they get in space, it's still not enough - there's no end to the immenseness!
The stories are wonderfully believable and the Japanese artwork is not the `big eyed', Hello Kitty stuff one comes to expect of manga.
Whoever decided to translate this series for America should be given an award for recognition of intelligent comic work. It's that good. I've read the 3 books several times and they're wonderful with each read.
Each volume ends with an epic tale. Volume 1 has "Lucifer" which is a great concept of an anti-matter universe which may be responsible for the Big Bang theory. Great stuff. Get these books - they're wonderful. This is the way comics should be done!
2001 Nights and other great worlds.......2000-04-13
I bought this book in the spring while I was in college studying comics. When you read so many comics, even the good ones seem to go pale. This graphic novel made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. With mature visuals and sensitive writing Yukinobu Hoshino sows accurately the vastness of the universe and the importance of human destiny within it and beyond it. The occasional over-explaining takes away very little in this epic. A great read by anyone's standards; comics fan or not.
A Manga Odyssey.......2000-03-23
2001: A Space Odyssey is one of my favorite movies for its detailed and believable vision of a future that is still largely unrealized. I was pleasantly surprised to see Yukinobu Hoshino pay homage to Kubrick's visual style throughout much of 2001 Nights, in scenes that were recognizably inspired by the film. The skillfully-rendered black-and-white panels throughout the book are evocative of the silence and vastness of space, yet the human characters are drawn with grace and style, without the occasional cartoonish facial expressions that mar other manga I've read. This stylistic discipline helps to keep the work focused and believable.
Aside from the fantastic artwork, the author lays out a sweeping story of humankind's quest to find its destiny beyond Earth, told in a series of time-separated vignettes. He touches upon issues of cooperation, isolation, exploration, greed and even religion -- and manages to pull this off without becoming trite.
It's pretty tough to describe in words something that is so visually distinctive and compelling. I originally ordered this book on a whim, but it has just blown me away.
Average customer rating:
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Biblical perspectives on death (Overtures to biblical theology)
Lloyd R Bailey
Manufacturer: Fortress Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
Eschatology | Theology | Christianity | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
General | Theology | Religious Studies | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0800615301 |
Average customer rating:
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Overture To Death
Ngaio Marsh
Manufacturer: Fontana
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0006130534 |
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Overture To Death
Ngaio Marsh
Manufacturer: Berkley Publishing Corp.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
Marsh, Ngaio | ( M ) | Authors, A-Z | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000OJY3DC |
Product Description
Inspector Roderick Alleyn detective novel
Product Description
Lee Furman, Inc. New York 1939 hardcover blue cloth cover w/green lettering, 352pgs.
Average customer rating:
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Overture to Death
Ngaio Marsh
Manufacturer: Pyramid
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
Marsh, Ngaio | ( M ) | Authors, A-Z | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000OE369Y |
Product Description
Mass Market Paperback 1974 Pyramid edition.
Books:
- The Seasons of a Man's Life
- The Shunning/The Confession/The Reckoning (The Heritage of Lancaster County 1-3)
- The Sum of All Fears
- The Warrior Prophet (The Prince of Nothing, Book 2)
- The Wife Of Reilly
- The Wolf and the Dove
- To Green Angel Tower, Part 1 (Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, Book 3)
- Typical American (Contemporary Fiction, Plume)
- What Dreams May Come: A Novel
- Where the Red Fern Grows
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- The Dance of Connection: How to Talk to Someone When You're Mad, Hurt, Scared, Frustrated, Insulted,
- King of Foxes
- Countryside Sketching: Pen & Pencil Techniques for Drawing Covered Bridges, Barns, Old Mills, an
- F. Scott Fitzgerald: Novels and Stories 1920-1922: This Side of Paradise / Flappers and Philosophers
- Landscape Painting Inside and Out: Capture the Vitality of Outdoor Painting in Your Studio With Oils
- Koala Lou
- Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life
- Old Mistresses: Women, Art and Ideology
- Dandies: Fashion and Finesse in Art and Culture
- Entering the World of Plants
A Confederacy of Dunces (Evergreen Book)
Ignatius Rising: The Life Of John Kennedy Toole
Ken & Thelma: The Story Of A Confederacy Of Dunces
I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell
Sperm Wars: Infidelity, Sexual Conflict, and Other Bedroom Battles
