The War on Words: Slavery, Race, and Free Speech in American Literature Book

After all these years, it was nice to learn some background about John Kennedy Toole, the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel A Confederacy of Dunces, from one of his friends.

I discovered A Confederacy of Dunces back in college in the 1980s, and fell in love with Toole's hilarious and poignant story of Ignatius J. Reilly and the other crackpot characters of his 1960s New Orleans. It's so terribly sad that Toole committed suicide at all (much less so young), thus leaving the world before he could produce any more of his brilliant literature (The Neon Bible, which was written before Confederacy, notwithstanding.)

I have heard stories from a friend who designed the set for the musical theatre version of ACOD at LSU back in the early 80's that Toole's mother, Thelma, was a real whack job, and this book does offer some evidence to support that opinion. But here in the South, one man's whack job is another man's eccentric. Whatever a whack job/eccentric she may have been, it was Thelma Toole's dogged determination that got her son's novel published, and I thank her for that. If Mrs. Toole hadn't been so eccentric and determined, that wonderful novel would have never been published!

I found that Joel Fletcher's recollections of his being an important part of Thelma Toole's life after her son's suicide helped to explain a lot of her eccentricities. The author's relationship with Mrs. Toole added another dimension to clarifying the complex relationship she had with her son. I believe that Mrs. Toole loved Ken, but she was also a very demanding mother of her only child.

The book is an easy, fast read, and I enjoyed the author's style as well as his commitment to honor both JK Toole's and Thelma Toole's legacies. His affection for both Toole and his mother is genuinely touching, but not cloyingly sentimental. If you are a fan of A Confederacy of Dunces, I highly recommend this book!