[.ca] Ignatius Rising: The Life of John Kennedy Toole (ISBN 0807130591)

Truth Stranger than Fiction:
Probably the best the authors could do given the circumstances. Great character description (esp. Thelma). Very interesting Belushi anecdote.

Learn the twisted story behind Toole's life and death:
Any fan of Confederacy of Dunces should naturally have an interest learning about the author, John Kennedy Toole. Misunderstood and over-protected throughout most of his life, Toole struggled with not only his writing, but as the authors would lead you to believe, also his sexuality. After reading this, one will notice many similarities and parallels between John Kennedy Toole and his famous character, Ignatius Reilly, from their social awkwardness to their dependence on their mothers.

Insightful and inspiring despite the outcome:
I've heard it said, "How said that we are cheated out of what Toole 'might' have written had he not taken his own life." I, too was depressed by this thought. The man had so much more left in him. After reading both NEON BIBLE and CONFEDERACY, I was sure no one could take his place. The closest thing I've found is an author by the name of Jackson McCrae. His writing is a combination of all the things Toole loved. It has the dark sadness of NEON BIBLE and the hilarity of CONFEDERACY. And it amazes me that so few others have followed in the literary footsteps of Toole.

Informative but undistinguished:
The person who said "great subject, poor execution" pretty much nailed it. I enjoyed finally learning in detail about the background of Toole and the circumstances under which the novel was written, but this is basically a dry assemblage of facts with no real sense of Toole as a person or an artist. The correspondence between Toole and Gottlieb also says nothing enlightening about why Simon and Schuster wouldn't publish Confederacy and the authors don't even attempt a hypothesis beyond "they didn't like the Myrna Minkoff character very much". My own feeling has always been that Toole was ahead of his time. His brand of satire was far too dark and biting for the 1960s, and I think if the book had been published then there would have been an extremely negative public reaction to it - which might have been even worse for Toole than not being published at all. Either way, given the struggles he was having with depression and alcoholism it's unlikely he would have survived long enough for his true audience to emerge at the end of the following decade. Note to the guy who thinks Thelma was the "ghostwriter" of Confederacy because her letter-writing style is so much like Ignatius Reilly's - you're overlooking the obvious. Thelma wrote letters to her son the entire time he was in Puerto Rico working on the first draft of the novel. Where do you think he got it from? Thelma may have acted as a sort of twisted Muse to Toole, but I highly doubt she was capable of conceiving of such a masterpiece of comic writing, much less committing it to paper. I suppose we should be grateful towards her for finally getting it into print, even if she was motivated by her own ego as much as anything else.

Great subject, poor execution.:
I really, really wanted to enjoy this book. However, the writing is about what you would expect from two women (who remarkably resemble Mrs. Levy) who took a writing course because they had nothing better to do. They decided to make the end-product of their course this biography. I love New Orleans, I lived uptown, and "Confederacy" is one of my favorite books. Alas, this book does give good information (typically in the form of unadulterated correspondence from Mr. Toole) about John Kennedy Toole, but the execution is stunted.