I, John Kennedy Toole

by Kent Carroll, Jodee Blanco

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781643131931
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	05/05/2020
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Kent Carroll is the former editor-in-chief at Grove Press, the former publisher of Carroll & Graf, and the co-founder and publisher of Europa Editions. He has published Samuel Beckett, Henry Miller, John Kennedy Toole, Jane Gardam, and Elena Ferrante, among other notable authors. He divides his time between Manhattan and East Hampton.

Jodee Blanco is the author of two New York Times bestsellers: Please Stop Laughing at Me, a memoir that became the seminal book for the anti-bullying movement, and a biography of a movie star in which she told the truth against all odds. She lives in Chicago.

Editorial Reviews

02/17/2020

This boisterous fictional take on the life and career of author John Kennedy Toole (1937–1969) from Carroll, a publishing veteran, and Blanco (Please Stop Laughing at Me, a memoir) is a bit of a mixed bag. The authors do a good job depicting the family life of only child Toole in New Orleans, in particular the tension between the sensitive, gifted Toole and his overbearing mother, Thelma, who ensured the publication of her son’s masterpiece, A Confederacy of Dunces, after his suicide. Simon & Schuster editor Robert Gottlieb, who rejected Dunces (because it “isn’t really about anything”), is fairly portrayed, though references to the 1968 novel Superworm, a highly touted but now forgotten Gottlieb acquisition, suggest his editorial judgment wasn’t always perfect. Book industry insiders will enjoy the account of how Carroll, then an editor at Grove Press, negotiated the paperback rights for Dunces with LSU, netting an instant bestseller after the book won the Pulitzer in 1981. Less satisfying is an undeveloped subplot involving a fictional reporter seeking to write about Toole. The authors also indulge in unnecessary historical scene setting (“in August of 1963, as Beatlemania continued to entrance the country, President Kennedy and the First Lady mourned the death of an infant son”). This love letter to Toole fans offers plenty of insights into the tragic literary figure. (May)

Publishers Weekly

"A sprightly, readable account."

The Irish Times

This novel tells the real-life story behind A Confederacy of Dunces, the cult classic that won a Pulitzer after Toole, its author, committed suicide. Carroll has a direct link to the material: He is the publisher who brought Toole’s book to light.

The New York Times

The dramatization of publishing-world machinations is as fascinating as Toole’s life.

Booklist

I, John Kennedy Toole is a well-researched novel that fans of Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces will want to read.

BookChase

Every fan of A Confederacy of Dunces has read the Walker Percy foreword. We all thought we knew the story of how John Kennedy Toole’s novel found its way into readers’ hands after the author’s suicide. Boy, did we not know the story. Kent Carroll and Jodee Blanco’s brilliant non-fiction novel gives us the goods, and then some. Illuminating and devastating, triumphant and tragic, I, John Kennedy Toole tells the tale of a dream deferred, of genius ignored.

David Benioff

The story behind John Kennedy Toole’s groundbreaking A Confederacy of Dunces is as colorful as the novel itself. I, John Kennedy Tooleis the novelized true story of the riveting narrative behind the making of an American masterpiece. It traces Toole’s life in New Orleans, through his adolescence, his stay at Columbia University, his attempts to escape the burdens of his parents, and the invention of characters that came to living reality in his Pulitzer-Prize winning book.

Octavia Books

"A wonderful read, with writing as deliciously arch as Toole himself and the real story of our times: the tragedy of untapped potential. I love the twisting time frame!"

Denise Mina

I, John Kennedy Toole is a vivid exploration of every writers’ nightmare—of writing the best she or he possibly can to create a book that would become a standard-bearer for decades to come, but not getting it published until it's way too late.

Audrey Schulman

"I still remember A Confederacy of Dunces well and remember how exciting it was to find such a book. I've read I, John Kennedy Toole with great pleasure—it's an engrossing account of a wonderful writer. A novel all John Kennedy Toole fans will want to read. I think you'll have a great success with it.

Andrew Miller

But given the aura around Toole’s life, it is a pleasure to spend some time with him, if only to rue the books he never had a chance to write.

The Economist

A fresh take on the patron saint of ever-hopeful, struggling artists everywhere, I, John Kennedy Toole is equal parts captivating and heartrending. Written by consummate publishing insider Kent Carroll and Jodee Blanco, this entertaining novel is sure to delight not only fans of the Pulitzer Prize-winning A Confederacy of Dunces, but any reader fascinated by the creative process. In the capable hands of Carroll and Blanco, the fictional Toole emerges as a literary cousin of his celebrated creation Ignatius Reilly.

Seth Greenland

2020-02-02
A fictional imagining of the troubled life of John Kennedy Toole and the selling of his Pulitzer-winning novel,A Confederacy of Dunces.Toole's story is well-known via biographies and appreciations ofDunces, published more than a decade after his suicide in 1969 at the age of 31. Claiming in their introductory note that personal details of the artist's life proved too elusive for a standard biography, the co-writers have fashioned a novel of their own about the man called Kenny. At once a shy, lonely person and a "gifted mimic" who enjoys mocking people, he is controlled by his mother, Thelma, who restricts her talented son from normal boyhood activities and accompanies him on his dates with a girl he can't kiss in his mom's presence. Though even in death Kenny is not free of Thelma's helicopter presence—her pestering salesmanship led to his obsessed-over book's publication—he mostly succeeds as an instructor at Columbia University and other schools. His pivotal moment comes when Simon & Schuster editor Robert Gottlieb, while finding much to recommendDunces, rejects it. His dream destroyed, Kenny slowly sinks into mental illness, ultimately fixating on his fictional alter ego, "instigator extraordinaire" Ignatius T. Reilly, as an actual person. As editor-in-chief at Grove Press, Carroll was instrumental in foisting the bestselling paperback edition ofDunceson the world. He himself is a character in this entertaining if oddly assembled book, which features a made-up journalist who becomes obsessed with Toole's story. While the authors do their best to capture their subject in all his eccentricities, their attempt to approximate his interior voice is pure folly. And their failure to provide a basic plot summary or excerpts fromDuncesis puzzling.

A lightly likable depiction of an ill-fated American master. Mind the credibility gap.

Kirkus Reviews