The Neon Bible

The Neon Bible
First edition cover
AuthorJohn Kennedy Toole
LanguageEnglish
GenreNovel
PublisherGrove Press
Publication date
May 1989
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (hardback & paperback)
ISBN0-8021-1108-4 (hardback edition) & ISBN 0-8021-3207-3 (trade paperback)
OCLC18411432
813/.54 19
LC ClassPS3570.O54 N46 1989
Preceded byA Confederacy of Dunces (1981) 

The Neon Bible is John Kennedy Toole's first novel, written at the age of 16. The novel is a bildungsroman about a callow youth named David in rural Mississippi during the late 1930s to early 1950s. He learns of religious, racial, social, and sexual bigotry in the narrator's ten strongest memories, one memory per chapter. The memories begin with David on a train, escaping the past, hoping for freedom. The book is told entirely from the first person.