[Groop]Re: Summer reading list

[bj.trapp]

Kevin Hall wrote:

> 
> PS Also, thanks to Arthur for his suggestion. The story behind the story
> is certainly intriguing...an author who kills himself due to bad reviews
> of a book that wins the Pulitzer. Really makes you wonder about
> "critics". I realize opinions are subjective and different people have
> different tastes, but in this case it seems like someone calling boiling
> hot water ice cold. Sheesh.
> 
     I remember hearing about the book (A Confederacy
of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole) back when it was first
published and getting hold of it on inter-library
loan.  I understand why there was trouble with getting
it published.  The protagonist is a very unsympathetic
character, both physically and behaviorally.  At the
time I found it impossible to have any sympathy for him
or the book as a whole and simply stopped reading and
went on to something I enjoyed.  
     I checked up on the net and read some of the
reviews of the book and am willing to give it another
try.  Perhaps I, like the various readers for the
publishing houses that turned it down, just gave up too
soon.
     Did anyone who watches "who wants to be a
millionaire" notice that John Kennedy Toole was one of
the possible ans for the $500,000 question last week? 
The q was: "what author wrote only one book, that
received the Pulitzer Prize."  (The right ans was
Harper Lee)  Toole had one other book published on the
strength of "Confederacy----", (that he wrote at age
16) that by all reviews shouldn't have been.
Bunny