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Summary: the first good book I've read in a long time
Review: A Confederacy of Dunces was reccomended to me by my eighth grade teacher. I am forever in debt to her. It was the best book I've ever read. I saw myself in Ignatius. It helped me to relieze who my confederacy was and get away from it.
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Summary: I LOVE A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES
Review: A Confederacy of Dunces is my favourite funny book. I think everybody who loves funny things must read it. If you do you will go back to read it again later. I have read it four times. The other funny book I recommend to everybody is "Rastus Reilly." This one is a new book which I have only recently read but it is another one that I know I will read again another time.
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Summary: The one book I recommend to friends without reservation
Review: I first read this book over 15 years ago, and it hasn't loss its freshness. It is not only funny (like others, my sides hurt from laughing), it is poignant and meaningful. The only other novel that I can compare it to is Heller's "Catch 22". Those who don't appreciate satire should avoid this one. However, if you can laugh at yourself and the world around you, invest in this book. You'll come back to it time and again.
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Summary: The best I've read in a long time
Review: I was unfamiliar with the tragedy surrounding this book and its author, Mr. Toole, and I admit that if I had known the facts, I probably would not have read it (I'm a writer myself, and the worst fate I could imagine is a "mercy Pulitzer" for someone who did himself in because he couldn't sell his work. But I did read it, and I can assure you that the Pulitzer was most deserved: Dunces was one of the most pleasant reads I've had in many, many months. The setting for the book is New Orleans, a place that I love and love reading about. But it's not a novel about New Orleans, it's a story about some very interesting people who're just trying to make it in this world as best they can. But it's no Steinbeck novel -- it's funny, warm, provocative and touching all at the same time. I rarely laugh out loud while reading a book, but this one had me doing so on several occasions. And there were times that I felt an overpowering sadness for the characters as they made their way in life. There were times while I was reading this book that I'd think that Ignatius was me -- clumsy, pompous and just plain wierd at times -- but for all that, people seemed to accept him for just being... Ignatius. I suppose that's all any of can hope for. The only bad part is that Mr. Toole is no longer with us. I'm going to miss Ignatius and his family and friends. Thank you, Mr. Toole, for a most pleasurable experience.
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Summary: There is no middle ground with this book!
Review: I think it is important for people to know that you will either love this book or hate it. I know of about 20 people who have read this (including a women's book club) and most people loved it. However, the people who did not like it (mostly in the book club), had little good to say. If you look at the reviews, they are mostly 5 stars and the few 1 stars. If you are open, like a little dark humor and appreciate good writing this book is for you. Let's just say, it will keep your "valve open".
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Summary: Absolutely the funniest book I have ever read
Review: I laughed until I hurt. The writing is wonderful. The characters are great. It is my favorite book of all times.
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Summary: Erudite, intelligent, side-splitting societal satire
Review: Excellently and very intelligently written. Hysterical and constantly entertaining. I cannot help but be struck by many similarities to what I believe to be the best written T.V. show of all time....If John Kennedy Toole was alive today, I have to wonder if he would be writing for the Simpsons. After having read numerous reviews at this site, I am also aware of what I feel to be an inaccuracy which I would like to point out to potential future readers. Does anyone else notice that while the positive to negative reviews of this book seem to something like 5 or 10 to 1, the percentage of people that found the positive reviews helpful seems in comparison to be dramatically lower...obviously I am not drawing a logically deductive conclusion here, but it seems to me that those few who did not like the book vindictively went through and polluted the good reviews by finding them not helpful. While certainly this is their right, I think it helpful to note this, and suggest that the book is even better than many of these reviews and percentages of reviews found helpful would suggest. It seems like a very basic fact that not everyone will like the same books, but at the same, tearing down the work of others is immensely easier than establishing a creative work of one's own. This is a fantastic book; creative, intelligent, captivating, and certainly well worth the read. Don't let a few vindictive individuals who cannot appreciate the true depth of this novel keep you from reading it.
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Summary: The title of the book is fitting.
Review: Well, as Queen Victoria often said, "We are not amused." I've heard great reviews, and that this book is excellent! That I MUST read it! It was very dull and-using I. J. Reilly's own words- "ho hum". I read the book on my lunch breaks, and took me over a month, a colleague shockingly asked "You're still reading THAT book?". Well, I thought that I would be faithful to the author and finish what I started. Mind you it was an uphill battle the entire way. It kept dragging out, and the vernacular of the characters was at times tiring to read. It ranged from a "menza-styled speaking Ignatius" [not to insult menza members] to "a vagran colo Jones". I kept thinking that the ending would be something really good, but it was a let down. I was hoping until the last paragraph, that the 30 year old Ignatius to his "Mynx" would lose his.... well you read the book.
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Summary: GREAT FOR BOOK GROUP
Review: This was a great book for book group. The main character is rich in his seriousness and comic-sadness. Sometimes likable, sometimes not. But always trying to make good. It's creative, bizarre, and sweet. Our conversation turned to questions of mental illness, it's meaning, it's impact on a person and on his/her community and family. (many of us are therapists) And do we really want to medicate it all away, and what of it do we want to medicate away and what of it to keep.
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Summary: A Confederacy of Dunces
Review: Obese, pedantic and hopelessly eccentric, Ignatius J. Reilly stands like Gargantua over all other characters in modern literature. He leads us on a series of his misfit adventures through the French Quarter of New Orleans. Age 30 and living with his mother, he is an over-educated oaf who sits around the house watching TV with disgust and laboriously filling up 'Big Chief' tablets with his reflections on life. His rantings on the world of work, love, religion and other topics leave no one safe from his fiery invective. His pseudo long-distance relationship with a liberated feminist named Myrna Minkoff reveals his attachment to his mother's apron strings. Stereotypical characterizations of other minor characters give the reader a balanced cornucopia of madness and genius. Comic relief is the order of the day in this brilliant novel. I absolutely loved it!
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