The Neon Bible

This article is about a novel. For the album, see Neon Bible. For the film adaptation, see The Neon Bible (film).

The Neon Bible
Author(s)	John Kennedy Toole
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Novel
Publisher	Grove Press
Publication date	May 1989
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
ISBN	ISBN 0-8021-1108-4 (hardback edition) & ISBN 0-8021-3207-3 (trade paperback)
OCLC Number	18411432
Dewey Decimal	813/.54 19
LC Classification	PS3570.O54 N46 1989
Preceded by	A Confederacy of Dunces (1981)

The Neon Bible is John Kennedy Toole's first novel, written at the age of 16. Its main appeal is as an early look at the writer who would later write A Confederacy of Dunces. Toole, describing the novel during correspondence with an editor, wrote "In 1954, when I was 16, I wrote a book called The Neon Bible, a grim, adolescent, sociological attack upon the hatreds caused by the various Calvinist religions in the South—and the fundamentalist mentality is one of the roots of what was happening in Alabama, etc. The book, of course, was bad, but I sent it off a couple of times anyway." It failed to attract interest from publishers and was not released until after Toole's death, after Confederacy's great success.

Like A Confederacy of Dunces, the novel had a long and difficult road to publication. The Neon Bible was written in 1954, but after initial attempts at securing publisher proved fruitless, the novel was put aside and Toole eventually began work on A Confederacy of Dunces. Toole committed suicide in 1969, leaving the unpublished manuscripts of A Confederacy of Dunces and The Neon Bible in the possession of Thelma Toole, his mother.

Louisiana's Napoleonic code-influenced inheritance law meant that these works technically belonged not only to Thelma Toole, but also to several other relatives on his father's side of the family. However, as the initial print run of Confederacy was only 2,500 copies (and was distributed by the small and non-mainstream Louisiana State University Press) no one figured that owning rights to the book would be especially profitable. Accordingly, Thelma Toole was able to convince these relatives to give up their rights to A Confederacy of Dunces.

But once Confederacy became a Pulitzer Prize winner and a commercial success in 1981, the situation changed. Toole's relatives knew that if issued as a follow-up novel, The Neon Bible could bring in a substantial amount of money. Consequently, they refused to give up their shared rights to this novel. Meanwhile, Thelma Toole refused to have the novel published if it meant that large portions of the income it derived would go to these relatives.

Thelma Toole died in 1984, but instructed author W. Kenneth Holditch to act on her behalf and keep the book from being published even after her death. Although Holditch attempted to respect Thelma's wishes (even though he did not agree with them), the relatives eventually filed a formal lawsuit that would have put the book up for auction. Holditch knew that no matter how it was auctioned off, the outcome of the legal action would be that the book would be legally published. He therefore allowed The Neon Bible to see publication in 1989, before the "spectacle" of an auction could be held.

Plot summary

The novel is a bildungsroman about a young man named David, growing up in rural Mississippi during the late 1930s to early 1950s, and gradually learning of religious, racial, social, and sexual bigotry.

The story is told as the narrator's ten strongest memories, one memory per chapter.

The book opens with David on a train going somewhere neither he nor the reader knows. Looking out the window of the train on to the surrounding land makes David begin to tell his story.

The story begins as David's Aunt Mae, a former actress and singer, moves in with David's family in their small house in the middle of town. Aunt Mae becomes sexually involved with a seventy-year-old man, which ends when the man is arrested on morality charges, and David does not get along with the other boys his own age. Soon after, David's father Frank loses his job at the factory in town and the family is forced to move to a rickety house on top of a hill overlooking the town. The family sinks into poverty, and Frank can only find part time employment as a gas station attendant.

As the family's circumstances worsen, Frank begins to care less about his family. When the family runs out of money, he buys seeds that will not grow in the clay of the hill soil instead of food with his small paycheck. His wife confronts him as he walks up the stairs and he hits her with his knee, knocking out one of her teeth. His wife bleeds badly, but this eventually subsides. Frank eventually leaves to fight in World War II, being shipped to Italy.

While Frank is in Italy, a revival headed by evangelist Bobbie Lee Taylor comes to town. The town preacher, who opposes the revival starts a rival Bible study class, which divides the town. Much of the drama is played through editorials in the newspaper and spots on the town radio station as each side attacks the other. Aunt Mae gets a job in the propeller factory as a supervisor, and organizes a dance. At the party, Aunt Mae sings and the townspeople are very impressed. This compels her to join a band, which helps make more money for the family.

Soon after the dance, the family receives a telegram stating that Frank had been killed in Italy. Frank's death causes David's mother to go insane, and David spends most of his time taking care of her, while Aunt Mae goes out with her singing group. David, now fifteen, gets a job at the pharmacy in town, where he meets Jo Lynne, a girl staying in the valley to help her grandfather get better. After seeing a melodramatic movie, David and Jo Lynne visit the houses that are being built and kiss.

Clyde, a member of Aunt Mae's band who is in love with her, tells Aunt Mae that they could get a record deal in Nashville. She decides to leave David and his mother for Nashville, and promises that she'll send tickets for them. On advice from Aunt Mae, David quits his job. After seeing Aunt Mae to the bus station, he returns to the house and eats dinner while reflecting on his situation. As he finishes his supper he begins to wonder where his mother is; she usually spends most of the day in the back yard where Frank's failed crop used to be. As he climbs the stairs he steps in a liquid, this liquid turns out to be his mother's blood. He finds his mother fallen and bleeding from the back of her mouth at the top of the stairs. The bleeding subsides, but eventually she dies. Her last word is "Frank."

The imperious preacher visits David's house to take his (now dead) mother to the elderly asylum. The preacher pushes past David to go upstairs, and as he climbs the stairs David shoots him through the back of the head, killing him. He buries his mother in the yard and uses his remaining money to board a train, hoping to start anew wherever he might be destined for.

The book is told entirely from the first person, and the main character is rarely referred to as David. David's name is mentioned very briefly at the beginning, and more strongly at the end. The restatement of his name is probably meant to jar the reader into paying closer attention.

Allusions/references to other works

The influence of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire is evident in some of the dialogue.^{[citation needed]}

The 2007 album Neon Bible by the Canadian band Arcade Fire was not named for the book; frontman Win Butler has stated the titles are purely coincidental.

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

In 1995 a movie of the book was released. The film The Neon Bible was directed by Terence Davies, with a screenplay by Terence Davies based on Toole's novel. The cast includes Drake Bell, Leo Burmester, Denis Leary, Peter McRobbie, Gena Rowlands, Diana Scarwid, and Jacob Tierney.