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I, John Kennedy Toole
I, John Kennedy Toole is the novelized true story of the funny, tragic, riveting narrative behind the making of an American masterpiece.
The book traces Toole’s life in New Orleans through his adolescence, his stay at Columbia University in New York, his attempts to escape the burden of his demanding mother and his weak father, his retreat into a world of his own creation, and finally the invention of astonishing characters that came to living reality for both readers (and the author himself) in his prize-winning A Confederacy of Dunces.
The other fascinating (and mostly unknown) part of the story is how after a decade of rebuke and dismissal the novel came to a brilliant author, Walker Percy, and a young publisher, Kent Carroll, who separately rescued the book, then published it with verve and devotion.
The novel that almost never came to be went on to win a Pulitzer Prize and continues to sell at a satisfying rate as it winds its way to the 2 million mark. That audience is the happy ending for this brilliant, unrepentant writer, whose only reward before his untimely death was his unending belief in his work and his characters.
The book traces Toole’s life in New Orleans through his adolescence, his stay at Columbia University in New York, his attempts to escape the burden of his demanding mother and his weak father, his retreat into a world of his own creation, and finally the invention of astonishing characters that came to living reality for both readers (and the author himself) in his prize-winning A Confederacy of Dunces.
The other fascinating (and mostly unknown) part of the story is how after a decade of rebuke and dismissal the novel came to a brilliant author, Walker Percy, and a young publisher, Kent Carroll, who separately rescued the book, then published it with verve and devotion.
The novel that almost never came to be went on to win a Pulitzer Prize and continues to sell at a satisfying rate as it winds its way to the 2 million mark. That audience is the happy ending for this brilliant, unrepentant writer, whose only reward before his untimely death was his unending belief in his work and his characters.
246 pages, Hardcover
First published May 5, 2020
13 people are currently reading
261 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
August 2, 2024
Back in the day, A Confederacy of Dunces was a big deal and I was a fan. When I was younger I read the book several times, but revisiting it more recently I was underwhelmed.
Part of the mystique of the novel was the publication story, how after his death the author's mother managed to wade through heaps of rejection to find a publisher, and then the novel was a bestseller and is still in print.
This book is "a novel based on a true story" and is blurbed as "a brilliant nonfiction novel." The authors wanted to write a biography of Toole but could not find enough material; so they wrote a "nonfiction novel" instead, imagining what was going on in Toole's head as he interacted with (and was consumed by) his ravenous fictional creation, Ignatius.
I just couldn't get into this book. Perhaps the narrative was inspired by "A Confederacy of Dunces" which was criticized as not being about anything. I tried, I really tried, but my grasping fingers could find little to cling to; all I could discover was a chimera of sorts, some composite creature, neither a novel nor nonfiction.
What would Ignatius Reilly have had to say about this concoction? We'll never know.
Part of the mystique of the novel was the publication story, how after his death the author's mother managed to wade through heaps of rejection to find a publisher, and then the novel was a bestseller and is still in print.
This book is "a novel based on a true story" and is blurbed as "a brilliant nonfiction novel." The authors wanted to write a biography of Toole but could not find enough material; so they wrote a "nonfiction novel" instead, imagining what was going on in Toole's head as he interacted with (and was consumed by) his ravenous fictional creation, Ignatius.
I just couldn't get into this book. Perhaps the narrative was inspired by "A Confederacy of Dunces" which was criticized as not being about anything. I tried, I really tried, but my grasping fingers could find little to cling to; all I could discover was a chimera of sorts, some composite creature, neither a novel nor nonfiction.
What would Ignatius Reilly have had to say about this concoction? We'll never know.
February 2, 2021
3.5 stars. Been wanting to re-read A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toilet but decided to read this first to learn more about the author even if it's a fictional account of his life. I found it interesting enough, wasn't bored by the story but wasn't overly excited for it either.
July 21, 2020
LACKING TASTE, DECENCY, THEOLOGY AND GEOMETRY
There are a few good books about John Kennedy Toole and his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, “A Confederacy of Dunces.” “I, John Kennedy Toole” is not one of them.
It’s not a biography like “Butterfly in the Typewriter.” Nor is it a memoir like “Ken and Thelma.” Instead, it’s what Toole’s protagonist Ignatius J. Reilly might have denounced as an “abortion.”
The book is a disorganized, plodding narrative that adds little to the Toole story. It’s a shame because one of the authors, Kent Carroll, was an editor at Grove Press when it bought the paperback rights to “Confederacy.”
Worse, it disrespects Toole’s memory with fictionalized nonsense. One example: Toole gets an erection thinking about author Flannery O’Connor, who was twelve years older and crippled by a debilitating disease. It also posits that Toole, fastidious, WAS Ignatius, a slob. Toole’s mother and friends have denied this.
In addition, the book’s main premise will be hard for some readers to accept: that Toole deliberately killed himself so he could be famous. Even Ignatius, portrayed as a voice in Toole’s head, was in on the decision. He then came to regret it because Toole was no longer alive to let him out of his manuscript-box coffin.
Carroll’s role in launching “Confederacy” as a Grove paperback is commendable and a worthy addendum to what is already known. But more detail would have been nice, especially since his involvement with the book ultimately cost him his job.
Other than that, it seems that the authors had so little new to offer that they had to resort to fiction. Even that has its limits, given that the book is well padded with national news events from the timeline of Toole’s life.
To Toole fans who who already know the story behind “Confederacy”: This book could seal your pyloric valve.
There are a few good books about John Kennedy Toole and his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, “A Confederacy of Dunces.” “I, John Kennedy Toole” is not one of them.
It’s not a biography like “Butterfly in the Typewriter.” Nor is it a memoir like “Ken and Thelma.” Instead, it’s what Toole’s protagonist Ignatius J. Reilly might have denounced as an “abortion.”
The book is a disorganized, plodding narrative that adds little to the Toole story. It’s a shame because one of the authors, Kent Carroll, was an editor at Grove Press when it bought the paperback rights to “Confederacy.”
Worse, it disrespects Toole’s memory with fictionalized nonsense. One example: Toole gets an erection thinking about author Flannery O’Connor, who was twelve years older and crippled by a debilitating disease. It also posits that Toole, fastidious, WAS Ignatius, a slob. Toole’s mother and friends have denied this.
In addition, the book’s main premise will be hard for some readers to accept: that Toole deliberately killed himself so he could be famous. Even Ignatius, portrayed as a voice in Toole’s head, was in on the decision. He then came to regret it because Toole was no longer alive to let him out of his manuscript-box coffin.
Carroll’s role in launching “Confederacy” as a Grove paperback is commendable and a worthy addendum to what is already known. But more detail would have been nice, especially since his involvement with the book ultimately cost him his job.
Other than that, it seems that the authors had so little new to offer that they had to resort to fiction. Even that has its limits, given that the book is well padded with national news events from the timeline of Toole’s life.
To Toole fans who who already know the story behind “Confederacy”: This book could seal your pyloric valve.
February 15, 2020
This is an imagining of the short life of John Kennedy Toole (1937-1969) and the life of his masterwork, the manuscript that would become A Confederacy of Dunces. It's no spoiler to say that his death by suicide would punctuate the life of the book but not end it -- we read about his death in the first chapter. The narrative then leaps back and forth through his life, his relationships and his unsuccessful attempts to publish it in the 1960s at a time when the book's eccentricities didn't suit the publishers of the day.
Thelma, his mother, is one of the more vivid, if unlikable characters in this novel. Domineering, yes, convinced that her boy Kenny is a genius, a literary prodigy, and raises him in her overpowering way, much like the stage mother in the musical "Gypsy", if more neurotic. She is a presence throughout Kenny's life, from his school days to his time as a professor of literature. Also haunting Kenny, more and more, is Ignatius Reilly, the central character of his book, who becomes a real, talkative, and demanding specter who becomes a real presence to him. Perhaps it's not surprising that the book, with this character, would survive Kenny and, in Thelma's hands, the book would make its rounds of publisher's offices anew.
The narrative's back-and-forth in time makes sense here, and the story is careful to peg the narrative in a particular year with particular cultural markers. It's 1980, for example: John Lennon is murdered and Ronald Reagan is elected, a kind of bookmark that helps the reader follow the jumps in time and culture. Thelma's obsessive promotion of the manuscript makes sense as the times have become more ready for this posthumous book, which becomes, as we know, famous. As a fictional biography, it's imaginative but well-grounded in time, place and the publishing industry.
Thelma, his mother, is one of the more vivid, if unlikable characters in this novel. Domineering, yes, convinced that her boy Kenny is a genius, a literary prodigy, and raises him in her overpowering way, much like the stage mother in the musical "Gypsy", if more neurotic. She is a presence throughout Kenny's life, from his school days to his time as a professor of literature. Also haunting Kenny, more and more, is Ignatius Reilly, the central character of his book, who becomes a real, talkative, and demanding specter who becomes a real presence to him. Perhaps it's not surprising that the book, with this character, would survive Kenny and, in Thelma's hands, the book would make its rounds of publisher's offices anew.
The narrative's back-and-forth in time makes sense here, and the story is careful to peg the narrative in a particular year with particular cultural markers. It's 1980, for example: John Lennon is murdered and Ronald Reagan is elected, a kind of bookmark that helps the reader follow the jumps in time and culture. Thelma's obsessive promotion of the manuscript makes sense as the times have become more ready for this posthumous book, which becomes, as we know, famous. As a fictional biography, it's imaginative but well-grounded in time, place and the publishing industry.
April 26, 2024
A Conspiracy is my all time favourite book so I approached this book with a lot of scepticism, expecting to discard it immediately, to throw it away incensed in an almost Ignatius-style torrent of self-righteous rage...but I didn't....I kept on. I didn't love the book by any means, and most of the secondary characters like the journalist in search for the real John Kennedy Toole and stories can and should be discarded (are they true? I don't know? but the recreation of the real author is plausible, the suffocating, loving, overbearing relationship with his mother, the mental decay running in the family are credible. For the real fans of this cult book, no-one can take Ignatius from us, as he will always be part of us but the sad reality is that none of us can get close to Ignatius' creator, and this book however unsatisfactory, tries to. And it's an attempt, a fleeting one that will fade away. In its almost imperfect way, it tries to conjure up the world of the tormented genius who in his charming, gentlemanly Southern, boy-genius way left us his greatest gift an creation, his Ignatius that might have destroyed him. A bittersweet read, that's all the book is. It shouldn't be taken as more.
January 7, 2020
The authors of this novel had a dilemma. Kent Carroll and Jodie Blanco wanted to write a biographical account about John Kennedy Toole and how A Confederacy of Dunces (ACoD) was written. Toole couldn’t catch a break to have his work published until after his death. The irony is the book ultimately won the Pulitzer Prize. The problem Carroll and Blanco faced was a biography would require in-depth research into the life of Toole. Unfortunately, the man was a cipher, with his few friends unavailable or unwilling to talk to them. Toole had committed suicide in 1969, and his book wasn’t published until 1980. Carroll and Blanco filled a comprehensive portrait of Toole as best they could built around facts but including their imaginings about individual episodes and Toole’s inner life.
The result is this novel, which lays bare the soul of an unappreciated writer and the workings of the publishing industry in the 60s and 70s. Toole started in life as an earnest child under the strict control of a dominating mother, Thelma. His father, J.D., was a car salesman who had a difficult time financially. The family lived in a succession of drab apartments in New Orleans. From an early age, Kenny Toole's mother and father were counting on him to be a success. As J.D. aged, Kenny and his mother witnessed his declining mental capacity as he succumbed to Alzheimer’s. This added additional pressure on Kenny to provide financial support to his family. He was determined to be a writer.
Kenny had a brief stint in the military and then pursued graduate studies in New York. He became a well-liked English professor but never swayed from his goal to publish and see the success of his novel ACoD. He still supported his family and tried to appease his demanding mother. When he wrote, he began to experience Ignatius, his main character, take on a life of his own. Kenny talked to him, argued with him, and laughed with him. Despite Kenny’s belief in his work and his efforts to work with the editor of a well-respected publishing house, nothing came of it. Finally, in an act to gain attention for his work and in ultimate desperation, Kenny killed himself. His mother and tormentor during his life becomes his greatest champion to ensure his book gets published.
I wasn’t sure I was going to like this novel at first. The beginning chapters introduce the reader to Kenny at the point of his suicide. It would have been a big mistake for me to have judged the book on the first few chapters because the narrative really takes off after. I read late into the night, not wanting to put the book down and feeling a connection to Kenny as I think most readers will. This book is for anyone chasing a dream and a warning to never give up.
I have received this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
The result is this novel, which lays bare the soul of an unappreciated writer and the workings of the publishing industry in the 60s and 70s. Toole started in life as an earnest child under the strict control of a dominating mother, Thelma. His father, J.D., was a car salesman who had a difficult time financially. The family lived in a succession of drab apartments in New Orleans. From an early age, Kenny Toole's mother and father were counting on him to be a success. As J.D. aged, Kenny and his mother witnessed his declining mental capacity as he succumbed to Alzheimer’s. This added additional pressure on Kenny to provide financial support to his family. He was determined to be a writer.
Kenny had a brief stint in the military and then pursued graduate studies in New York. He became a well-liked English professor but never swayed from his goal to publish and see the success of his novel ACoD. He still supported his family and tried to appease his demanding mother. When he wrote, he began to experience Ignatius, his main character, take on a life of his own. Kenny talked to him, argued with him, and laughed with him. Despite Kenny’s belief in his work and his efforts to work with the editor of a well-respected publishing house, nothing came of it. Finally, in an act to gain attention for his work and in ultimate desperation, Kenny killed himself. His mother and tormentor during his life becomes his greatest champion to ensure his book gets published.
I wasn’t sure I was going to like this novel at first. The beginning chapters introduce the reader to Kenny at the point of his suicide. It would have been a big mistake for me to have judged the book on the first few chapters because the narrative really takes off after. I read late into the night, not wanting to put the book down and feeling a connection to Kenny as I think most readers will. This book is for anyone chasing a dream and a warning to never give up.
I have received this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
October 18, 2020
Džodi Blanko i Kent Kerol su, isprva, želeli da napišu biografiju glasovitog Džona Kenedija Tula. Međutim, ispostavilo se da nemaju baš toliko materijala, te su odlučili da napišu roman o autoru knjige "Zavera budala". I tako je nastala knjiga "I, John Kennedy Toole" koju sam naprosto morao da pročitam.
Sada se pitam kako su od zanimljivog i dinamičnog života pisca najbolje knjige na svetu uspeli da stvore dosadnu, nezanimljivu, konfuzno napisanu brljotinu kakva je ova knjiga. Stvarno je potrebno mnogo talenta da se napiše nešto u ovoj meri nebitno, nemaštovito, lišeno emocija i loše u svakom aspektu.
Kao da je autorima bio cilj da odvrate ljude od čitanja romana "Zavera budala", a ne obrnuto.
Sada se pitam kako su od zanimljivog i dinamičnog života pisca najbolje knjige na svetu uspeli da stvore dosadnu, nezanimljivu, konfuzno napisanu brljotinu kakva je ova knjiga. Stvarno je potrebno mnogo talenta da se napiše nešto u ovoj meri nebitno, nemaštovito, lišeno emocija i loše u svakom aspektu.
Kao da je autorima bio cilj da odvrate ljude od čitanja romana "Zavera budala", a ne obrnuto.
July 27, 2020
Confederacy of Dunces mega fans will likely gobble up this speculative journey through Toole’s life and his quest to get his book published. I thought the book was brilliantly paced and structured, though I did sort of lament the conventional writing style as not really fitting with John Kennedy Toole’s highly unconventional way of seeing and writing about the world.
September 3, 2020
No surprises here. I read Confederacy of Dunces soon after it came out, and probably could have deduced this "fictional" biography just from reading the book. Of course, I am wondering what sort of Napoleonic Law necessitated a new literature genre.
December 28, 2021
All Dunce fans should read this. You probably know about Toole’s tragic ending. This is his tortured journey there. Flows nicely like very good novels do. I read it in three days; might be a new record for me for a book of this length.
August 14, 2020
No one in New Orleans makes gumbo from a Better Holmes and Garden's recipe, but other than that...excellent
September 17, 2020
I usually don't read non-fiction. But this book read more like fiction and was so good that I could not put it down.
April 17, 2021
If you like "A Confederacy of Dunces," you need to read this. If you haven't read A Confederacy of Dunces, you need to read it, then read this. Thank me later.
October 2, 2022
This book made me like John Toole better than his creation, Ignatius Reilly. What a shame.
September 14, 2020
I began the book and was swept on to complete the first several chapters. What a story. The author is able to complete the missing elements of a triumphant publication "Conspiracy of Dunces." Both tomes complete a single version of an interesting and non neuronormal individual -JKT.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews