Rating: 
Summary: "Forgive me, Mother, for I have Sinned"
Review: "I committed suicide, Mom, the one thing you feared the most. The one un-forgettable sin. Unforgivable, too, unless you do confession posthumously, or on Capt. Stormfield's train to heaven.""I left all of you when I went away, but you did not leave me. You were on the train with me. You and Aunt Mae, right? That Aunt Mae was REALLY you, wasn't it? Did I sound a bit like Holden Caulfield, from "Ketchup on the Rye" or what?" "I wrote it for you, mom, but you know that. Tell me, did it sound a little like it was written by Faulkner? Some compare my style to Tarkington, Steinbeck, young Hemingway or even J. C. Harris in "Free Joe", but I try to replicate persons like Truman Capote Persons, also of "Lucky Dog" town with a little Malamud thrown in." "It's not hard when you get used to it, and by age 15 I had already gotten used to a lot of things you can not imagine. Did you think those dialogs with teacher Farney were made up?: 'I DO wish that boy in the third
row would STOP leering at me!' "That boy was me, mom!" "I miss you, mom. I wish you were on the train with me. Even papa, too. It's so lonely here. And cold. Cold and lonely. Pines flourish in the cold. So do ideals, but is that all there is to life?" I want so badly to kiss her again..." (I've stopped breathing. Farewell.)
Rating:
Summary: Nothing like "Confederacy"
Review: After recieving a Pulitzer Prize for A Confederacy of Dunces, John Toole's The Neon Bible was published in 1989. At the age of 16 he was writing this book for a literary contest.
In a small, southern town in Mississippi lived a boy named David. He spent most of his time taking walks and following around his Aunt Mae. He grew up relying on her thoughts and opinions which later conflicted when she wasn't around. The town was so consumed with the politics of the church and they forgot the real meaning. As a boy, he was ridiculed for not being a part of the church because his Poppa didn't pay the dues. David could see the light of the neon bible shinning bright from his home. To him the bible was a symbol of God fearing neighbors. From page to page we learn his thoughts and feelings about life, love, and religous views. David's thoughts and feelings conflicted with his inner-self and surroundings. As a young writter Toole wrote an easy to read, but yet descriptive novel. Throughout the book he uses flashbacks, similes, and metaphors. The book had a constant flow that made it enjoyable.
Rating: 
Summary: The Neon Bible
Review: After recieving a Pulitzer Prize for A Confederacy of Dunces, John Toole's The Neon Bible was published in 1989. At the age of 16 he was writing this book for a literary contest.
In a small, southern town in Mississippi lived a boy named David. He spent most of his time taking walks and following around his Aunt Mae. He grew up relying on her thoughts and opinions which later conflicted when she wasn't around. The town was so consumed with the politics of the church and they forgot the real meaning. As a boy, he was ridiculed for not being a part of the church because his Poppa didn't pay the dues. David could see the light of the neon bible shinning bright from his home. To him the bible was a symbol of God fearing neighbors. From page to page we learn his thoughts and feelings about life, love, and religous views. David's thoughts and feelings conflicted with his inner-self and surroundings. As a young writter Toole wrote an easy to read, but yet descriptive novel. Throughout the book he uses flashbacks, similes, and metaphors. The book had a constant flow that made it enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: The genius is a genius no matter his age...
Review: and it`s amazing he can make words become an explosion of pyrotecnics.
His knowledge of English and his inborn talent and sensibility drove him to leave a Heritage to Humanity: Confederacy of Dunces, and also Neon Bible... If you look deeply into the lines of this man, you`ll cry in grieving for his tragedy expressed in LAUGHING.... God must have him writing upstairs....
Rating: 
Summary: An inside look at the author - dull and slow in itself
Review: I enjoyed Confederacy of Dunces quite a bit, and was intrigued by this author's life. It is amazing that a sixteen year old could produce such a work. While I enjoyed reading the Neon Bible because I felt I was somehow getting to know an author I found mysterious, I would not recommend this book to a friend. What it lacks in plot, it does make up for in language, but is admittedly slow, and dreary. But to someone that loved Confederacy of Dunces, and was interested in learning more about the spirit of Toole, this is a great place to start. It's just a shame he only has two published works.
Rating:
Summary: Whoa!
Review: If you are looking for the humour found in Toole's "Dunces" then look elsewhere. I really liked this book, and the fact that it was written by Toole at the age of sixteen makes it even that much better. I have to admit that I was truly surprised by the ending! Again, if you are looking for a comedic, light-hearted read, this isn't it. A great work from a truly gifted writer.
Rating:
Summary: Caution: access to the author's soul
Review: John Kennedy Toole's, THE NEON BIBLE, is a simplistic look at the times in which the author grew up. It generates the feeling of the moment -- guilt, anger, and finally, acceptance, and reluctance to change that which is considered acceptable. It has it's laughable moments and, in Chapter 5, it's moment to cry. The characters, though, are rich -- as rich as his later characters in 'A Confederacy of Dunces', just not as developed; but then, superficiality was the speciality of the day. Toole was no different than any other 16 year old of any generation except that he truly was a gifted writer. At sixteen we are all able to see the inequities in any given system or institution -- we just lack the understanding. Read it and see if you don't recall your own youth. I was reminded many times of the writings of Jackson McCrae (thinks his "Bark of the Dogwood" or his "Children's Corner" with their colorful descriptions et al.), but NEON BIBLE has something else and this is probably due to the author's suicide and the legacy or lack thereof, that he left.
Rating:
Summary: A Black Eye for Obsessed Bible Thumpers
Review: Small town life in the South during the 1930's and 1940's leaps off the pages of John Kennedy Toole's The Neon Bible. With the Great Depression, the family suffers a financial and social fall from grace when Poppa loses his job. They are forced to move to the fringes of town where rents are cheap; they no longer go to church because they no longer have the money to tithe. Aunt Mae, who had been "on the stage," is the closest thing the church-going town's people can find to a jezebel; never mind that Jesus Christ took Mary Magdalene into his fold. When the preacher comes to take Mother, who is emotionally demented, to a place not mentioned by name but for her own good, David, the protagonist, can no longer stomach the imposed benevolence of the preacher and his oppressive, decreed moral standards that are really his lust for power, conformity to his way of thinking and doing, and censorship - that is, things NOT to his way of thinking and doing. The Neon Bible. It's John Kennedy Toole's gospel truth.
Rating:
Summary: astounding that a 16-year old could write this
Review: The author, John Kennedy Toole, is famous for A Confederacy of Dunces, of which I know little. He committed suicide before that book was published. Much later, the manuscript for The Neon Bible was discovered.
I wasn't wowed by the book or anything, but when I consider the fact that it was written by a fifteen- or sixteen-year old during the 1950s, it strikes me as a pretty amazing piece of work. It astounds me to think that such a young kid had the life's experience necessary to invent and describe the book's characters.
Just to give you an idea, he writes about a gay couple in a small, Southern town without actually coming right out and saying they're gay. The anecdotes he reveals about the couple seem very true to life to me, but I have to say that, as a sixteen year old in 1976, I would have been unable to formulate even a half-way coherent image of a gay man. Even more surprisingly, he pulls it off without casting a dark cloud on the two characters.
I'm very interested in getting my hands on A Confederacy of Dunces, a book which promises to be an interesting read.
Rating:
Summary: a small surprise like a well cooked appetizer
Review: The four stars merely represents my own opinion and should not bias anybody on the quality of this book. The only other book that John Kennedy Toole wrote is a marvel called "Confederacy of the Dunces". I was so impressed by this later book that I decided to buy Neon Bible. I will recommend that before reading Neon Bible you should try to get your hands on "Confederacy............" - in that book you will find a more broad illustrations of the talents of Kennedy. It is a real shame that he had to leave us at such an early age but his creations help us to remember him.
"Neon Bible" was written by Kennedy when he was almost a kid so the passages do not have the craft of Fitzgerald and Hemingway but that does not reduce it literary value. Actually the language is very directive and narrative without much flourishes. The story, sometimes feels more like biographical, is about the life of a small boy in the deep south .......
The portrayal of life as it was in the south after the depression is extremely interesting. I do not have enough knowledge to say it is accurate or not but you never get a surreal feeling i.e. nothing seems fake. Actually the succinct to-the-point description sometimes surprised me - but even then you will not loose interest for a second. The central character of the book is the narrator himself and around him are his parents, aunt Mae, the teachers (specially Mrs. Watkins, Mr. Farney), Bobby Lee Taylor and so many others and each of then draw attention in their own way. Actually it was little funny to read about the fight between the "state" and the "church" - to me the same fight is going on today except for the fact that under religious zealots like Aschroft the church is more powerful than before. The other fact to notice is the position of the blacks and they seem to be treated less significantly than the pet animals. The narrator is not born with a silver spoon in his mouth and has to fight to achieve every little bit but that does not deter him from moving ahead with his life. Here we also have to remember that moving ahead with life does not necessarily mean to become rich and have a nice career. Sometimes life means just survival and with everybody around it and to sacrifice for the ones who are less fortunate. You can buy this book and keep it in your collection as a portrait of American society in 40s. It also shows the effects of the war on a family and the society as a whole- alas that was a necessary war. I wish Mr. Bush could have read this book before attacking Iraq - alas he does not read.
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