Rating: 
Summary: Don Quijote meets Tales of the City
Review: I finished this book with mixed emotions; it had me alternately laughing and annoyed. What makes this book brilliant is also its downfall: its nonstop (and sometimes tiresome) literary and cultural allusions. The protagonist's worldview is a mishmash of Roman philosophy, medieval literature, and a passionate contempt for the bourgeoisie. An unsuccessful hot dog vendor with an elite university education, Ignatius J. Reilly bumbles through New Orleans in a series of adventures and mishaps that put him squarely at odds with the authorities and mainstream society. The author asks a lot of the reader, however, by sharing Ignatius's every belch and moment of flatulence. If you are can get past the slow beginning, you'll probably enjoy the rest. It's a clever satire, and sometimes leaves you laughing out loud. Unlike anything else you'll read.
Rating: 
Summary: Hillarious
Review: Short and sweet, this book is one of my favorites . If the Pulitzer Prize never leads me to another book I love, I'm still in it's debt.Read it!
Rating: 
Summary: Too strange to be good
Review: It won a Pulitzer? My only explanation for it is that the committee must have figured if *they* couldn't understand it, then it must be good. But I would disagree. I swear I wrote an assignment in 9th grade English that was remarkably like this book in style, and it got a 'D.' I'd have to say this book is different, sure, but ... It did have a few very wry and funny passages, but overall I didn't like the story or the style.
Rating:
Summary: Quite simply, the funniest book ever written
Review: Take this easy test: If you don't like this book, you have no sense of humor worth mentioning. If you love it, you can use this hilarious novel as a litmus for testing the sense of humor of potential spouses, mates, friends, classmates, employers, etc. (In general, anal types and neat-freaks will hate it.) Ignatius J. Reilly is one of the towering comic creations, right up there with Sancho Panza and Falstaff. Another source of delight is how Toole skewers the entire Sixties ethos that was just coming into being at the time of his writing.
Rating:
Summary: Tilting At Windmills
Review: What a same that John Kennedy Toole wont be providing any more wonderful novels. This book rates as one of my new favorites and certainly deserves the praise it has been given. This book is very refreshing in that it deals with psychologically complex characters without giving into modern judgments of their actions. Confederacy also manages to portray a very small character with a very small life in an epic manner which is a challenge that most novels do not rise to.
Rating:
Summary: You'll never think of the word, valve, the same way again!
Review: This is my favorite book! I've read it numerous times and it never fails to make me laugh aloud. The main character, Ignatius J. Reilly, is unforgettable: his "valve", piety, and visions of a canine while masturbating and various other appalling/hilarious peccadilloes will be forever committed to memory. John Kennedy Toole gives us a penetrative view of the world of the airy intellectual and the natives of downtown New Orleans. The book was published posthumously and my only sense of disappointment is that the author is not around to entertain us with more unique characters and tales. An absolute must read!
Rating:
Summary: Hilarious Genius.
Review: This book had me laughing out loud throughout.Ignatius' way of speaking, his mannerisms, his "valve"; it was all just brilliantly funny. What a shame that Toole has only two published works. What a great body of work we have been deprived of... I highly recommend this book!
Rating:
Summary: An unheralded masterpiece
Review: This is the kind of book that a person rarely buys on his/her own inspiration. It isn't a New York Times bestseller. It isn't one in a series. It isn't by a well-known author. And the first character the reader encounters is loud, tremendously overweight, strangely dressed and possibly mentally ill man who doesn't immediately arouse the typical reader's sympathies. If you skipped the prologue and just began reading the first page or two while standing in a bookstore, you might not even be impressed. But read just a little while longer and author Toole will have sunk his hooks into you. This book is an odd masterpiece. It's a comic tour-de-force whose characters shine. It's Seinfeld set in the seedy side of New Orleans. It's what would happen if comedian Lewis Black finally snapped and moved from Manhattan to the Creole Capital. It's absurd, but it is even more funny. If you don't believe me, just read the prologue someday. Walker Percy recounts how this manuscript first came to his attention. He discusses how he tried and tried to get out of having to read it. Eventually he decided that he'd just read a few pages so that he could honestly say that it was no good and be done with it. But after picking up the script, he writes that he first endured a "sinking feeling" when he realized it was better than he thought; then later, he had a "prickle of interest"; finally, he writes, "surely it was not possible that it was so good." But it is that good: it won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. The tragedy is that John Kennedy Toole isn't a better known author -- he killed himself in 1969. This book certainly is a fantastic way of keeping his memory alive.
Rating:
Summary: The best - literally - I've ever read
Review: From the characterizations to the dialog to the wit - this is it. With lines like "The Smithsonian Institution, that grab-bag of our nation's refuse" to "the air conditioning... exhaled the Levi's carbon dioxide and cigarette smoke and ennui" you know this is no ordinary novel. Funny, serious, tragic, entertaining. You will simultaneously loathe and love the protagonist, one Ignatius J.Riley. I'll overlook some obvious plot loose ends, ...the book was published after his death.
Rating:
Summary: Playful and fun
Review: Just great writing. Great characters. A story about nothing before Sienfeld made it cool.
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