A Confederacy of Dunces

Rating:
Summary: Extraordinary
Review: I have read 5 reviews of this book. the first four gave it five stars. The last, one. I cannot understand how anyone could not like this novel. It is past funny. It is delightful. John Kennedy Toole had a gift that was greatly wasted. Ignatius may have been crude and idiotic. That was part of his charm. He was more than entertaining. I had to love this book because it made me laugh harder than I had ever from any previous book I ever read. It is a work of genius and every portion is interwoven. Pure genius at work. I read it for a book club that I am in. Otherwise, I would not have bothered. Now, I am glad that I have. I have recommended it to so many people. I think it is a book that everyone should read. If you have a sense of humor, you WILL like it!

Rating:
Summary: Hilarious audio!
Review: My husband and I listened to the audio version of Confederacy of Dunces on a road trip and were laughing so hard we nearly ran off the road. Artie Johnson does a superb job of making all the characters come alive. I wish they would make a movie of this book!

Rating:
Summary: loved it
Review: It's not very often that I laugh audibly while reading. This book is one of the very few to accomplish that feat.

Rating:
Summary: masterful
Review: A masterpiece! This is the best book I've ever read. The book for the bums of America! The best book about a slacker pushed into the work force ever. Filled with hilarious results.

Rating:
Summary: Toole's Book is a Light Snack for Heller Fans
Review: One of the first things that popped into my head as I was reading "A Confederacy of Dunces" was the realization that I was essentially reading warmed-over Joseph Heller. Indeed, Toole's work, in the most general sense, is very much like "Catch-22" in its use of an outsider anti-hero and other eccentric characters wandering through a morally ambiguous and often absurd universe that is our own world reflected in the mirror of irreverent social commentary. There are even brief moments when Toole's prose gives the reader a whiff of Heller. Toole's anti-hero, however, is not imbued with the charm and savvy of a Yossarian. Ignatius Reilly is a tremendous, mad philosopher who suggests the image of Thomas Aquinas reflected in a concave funhouse mirror. His character switches from imperious to childish and from infuriating to pathetic. The reader will also find that Toole almost seamlessly unites the entire novel into a single intricate plot, which is a contrast to "Catch-22"'s interrelated and thematically similar, but largely independant sub-plots. In summation, any reader who has been hungry for Helleresque fiction and doesn't mind a relative lack of philosophical depth will probably enjoy this novel.

Rating:
Summary: Hysterical
Review: Well, judging by the other reviews, this is a love-it-or-hate-it book, which tends to signify how different and unusual it is, if anything else. Personally, I found the writing very clever and something very funny on almost every page. The only disappointment is that the author left this world before he could write anything else! Read this damn book!

Rating:
Summary: Could be the "great American novel"
Review: I first stumbled across this fabulous work on a sale table at the bookstore where I worked. With a 50 cent pricetag and a dustjacket adorned by a rotund, hat wearing, misfit, I figured, what the hell. Having filled out the proper form to deduct the ducat from my pay, I proceeded to fall in love with a city (New Orleans), a mother (Irene), a policeman (Frank) and a whole host of characters that lept from the pages into my life. But most of all, I fell in love with Ignatius. From the opening salvo on Canal St to the final...well you read the book to find out...you are immediately drawn into a world that is simultaneously happy and sad, light and pathetic, soothing, yet disturbing. This is a book that, at first, holds you, then hugs you, then tightens its grip until it will not let go. If you want to journey on a voyage of wide ranging, deep emotions. If you want to know others for who they really are. If you want to know yourself for who you really are. And, if you want to have about a thousand laughs along the way. Read Confederacy of Dunces. Nothing else comes close

Rating:
Summary: read this... especially if you've been to NO
Review: This was a book I had to read. Last summer, I travelled to New Orleans on business. I was wandering through the market in the French Quarter when I came across a tiny book stall. Drawn to Confederacy, I picked it up. An old man came up to me and said "You have to read that book. Then, come back and tell me what you thought of it." I told him I was leaving the next day and that it wasn't likely but he said "Just come back and talk to me about it. I'll still be here." I was intrigued and I needed a souvenier for my boyfriend, so I bought the book. Well, I brought it home and my boyfriend nearly died. Apparently, he read the book a few years earlier, loved it so much that he bought it for ten of his friends for Christmas. He had always tried to find a nice hardcover version but was never successful. What are the chances? The book itself is unique and a great read. What an adventure! What an unusual character! New Orleans comes alive, which is great for a reader who misses the place. Now, there's no question: I'll go back to that spot and hopefully that man will still be there.

Rating:
Summary: I'm confused.
Review: This book is either loved or hated. Five stars or one, and not much in between. I understand where the haters are coming from . . . being one myself. What I don't understand is what makes this book so incredibly funny in the eyes of so many people. It is slow, bland, and evenly irritating throughout. I've never read a book where I wished so much that the main character would get hit by a truck. The endless streams of wordy nonsense from this bum's mouth is madening. I hate this book, and it IS NOT FUNNY in the least, EVER. Who are these five star people anyway?

Rating:
Summary: Very different, yet interesting and funny.
Review: When I had this book first recommended to me by one of my English teachers, I never really thought anything of it. But once I read the book, I thought it was interesting and even made me laugh out loud a few times, which very seldomly happens when I read a book and it is supposedly "funny." I also thought that it was very different from other books and story lines I had read, which is also another plus. The reason I only gave four stars is, well, because the character Ignatius is sometimes annoying by his theories or the things that he thinks and says and he grosses me out at times with the amount of food he eats. This may sound weird, but I find that sometimes a bad thing in a book. Other than that, this is a wonderful book!! I recommend it, as well....