JKT wrote Confederacy of Dunces, his second novel, couldn't find a publisher, and then killed himself (JKT was diagnosed as a manic/depressive a few years before his suicide). Fourteen or so years later, JKT's mother, Thelma, after harrowing scores of editors and authors, convinced Walker Percy to read the manuscript -- a tattered, smudged bundled mess of papers kept in a shoe box. Almost against his will, Percy liked then loved then adored the book. With Percy onboard, the book found a publisher...and then won the Pulitzer Prize.

If you let the foregoing paragraph be all you know about JKT and Confederacy of Dunces, then shame on you (and me) because you absolutely must read this book. It's very, very funny, wise, and enjoyable. You will love the repulsive protagonist, Ignatius, because he is so outrageous and arrogant and pathetic and sad that you can't help but love him. Fortuna's wheel has spun you here, follow the revolution on over to Confederacy of Dunces. ( )

The story behind the novel is actually pretty interesting but it's like 20 page forward to the novel interesting not 200 page biography interesting. Oh well, I read it.

This is a man who was very fat and very gay. Pants would approve. ( )

I read this book to learn more about the author of A Confederacy of Dunces. The authors have produced a thorough biography of John Kennedy Toole, with 24 photographs and reproductions of a cartoon by Toole and numerous letters to or from him or his narcissistic mother, Thelma, as well as correspondence by others.

One can see some parallels between Toole and Ignatius J. Reilly, the main character of his book. It's rathereerie how Toole became more like Ignatius, after writing the book in the early 60s, before his suicide in 1969 at age 32. The authors speculate that Toole may have been a closet homosexual, and imply this, plus financial difficulties, plus the rejection of his book, may have led to mental illness. His overbearing mother (whose perseverance in getting his book published posthumously was both annoying and admirable) and weak father probably didn't help.

The most fascinating part of the book are the letters between Toole and Robert Gottlieb of Simon and Schuster, the first (and only) publisher where Toole submitted his manuscript. In a long letter to Gottlieb after the latter's initial rejection (with encouragement) of the book, Toole says (on page 138), "The book is not autobiography; neither is it altogether invention. . . . I am not in the book; I've never pretended to be. But I am writing about things that I know, and in recounting these, it's difficult not to feel them."

Based on the seven pages of "Notes on Sources" at the end of their book, it appears Nevils and Hardy did a lot of research. The numerous interviews they did as well as the photographs and correspondence included in the book help bring Toole to life. I would have liked to see a somewhat more scholarly approach, with footnotes/endnotes (to better see where and how the authors draw some of their conclusions), a bibliography, an index, and a table of contents.

© Amanda Pape - 2010 ( )