Rating: 
Summary: Thorough, depressing
Review: This is a mostly sad tale about a very talented writer. It really shows the dominace his mother had over him and how conflicted he was about who he was, which in the end was probably why he killed himself. Many writers get rejected, they all don't kill themselves... so it was Nevils and Hardy's job to shed light on the many factors that led to his suicide, which I believe they did very well.However it's not all dark and gloomy, reading about how insane his mother was quite funny at times, although I wouldn't want to spend an evening at one of her recitals or listen to her ramble on the phone(I have my own mother for that)
Rating: 
Summary: Ignatius Rising
Review: This is such a wonderful, compelling book. It's clearly written, but the authors step back enough to give their subject matter its due. They let Toole's mother speak for herself..and she does. I read this book nearly straight through. The biography is full of Southern Gothic characters as someone else here wrote, including Toole himself, but most noteably his mother and father. Really, it's a glimpse of life one generation ago in New Orleans as much a look at a strange and fascinating man and how he constructed his life in the face of a mother that seemed to exemplify the words: stage mother.
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