I, John Kennedy Toole (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781643131931)

A rich new novel that explores the true story of A Confederacy Of Dunces and the remarkable life of its author, 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 novel 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.

Author: Kent Carroll, Jodee Blanco
ISBN-10: 1643131931
ISBN-13: 9781643131931
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Language: English
Published: 05/05/2020
Pages: 256
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.75lbs
Size: 8.10h x 5.60w x 1.20d

Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 02/15/2020
Publishers Weekly 02/17/2020
Booklist 05/15/2020 pg. 17