More Great Books

[Steve]

WE have debates in the past the merits of 

"A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole

For the most part, you either love every histerically funny page of
it, or you just don't get it. Personally, I loved this book.

From the book summary at Amazon.com

"Toole's lunatic and sage novel introduces one of the most memorable
characters in American literature, Ignatius J. Reilly, whom Walker
Percy dubs "slob extraordinaire, a mad Oliver Hardy, a fat Don
Quixote, a perverse Thomas Aquinas rolled into one." Set in New
Orleans,... As its characters burst into life, they leave the region
and literature forever changed by their presence..."

This book won a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction; it's that good.

However, there is a another little know book written by J.K.Toole when
he was only 16 years old, and the potential genius is very easy to
see. Of course, a book written at age 16 isn't going to compare to the
Pulitzer Prise winning book of the adult Toole, but it is none the
less a fun read, and encompasses an equally abusrd life and cast of
characters. I really enjoyed it.

Sadly, this brilliant writer with so much potential to affect the
heart and lives of the world around him succumb to his own internal
demons and ended his life. A very great loss to the world.

The book is -

"The Neon Bible" by John Kennedy Toole

"...written when Toole was just 16 and left in pieces to his heirs.
While far from the masterpiece Toole would write later in his life,
this story of a poor boy growing up in a small, claustrophobic,
closed-minded Southern town in the 1940s, is an astonishing
accomplishment for an adolescent. Narrator David lives with his
mother, who is never fully herself after his father dies in World War
II, and his gaudy Aunt Mae, a bleached-blonde roadhouse singer in her
60s. The story is familiar and believable, a tantalizing reminder of
the talent that has been lost. It deserves a wide audience." - From
Library Journal quoted at Amazon.com

Both books bring us an hysterically funny off-kilter view of the world.

Just passing it along.

Steve/bboyminn