Rating: Summary: The best novel of the last fifty years Review: No other work of modern fiction combines humor and poignancy as effectively. Ignatius is Hamlet and Falstaff. He is despicable and noble, self-deluded and brilliant. I have read this novel many times over, and each time I read it I discover new facets.
Rating: Summary: Passer-by, please stop, and read this book!! Review: I read Confederacy of Dunces a few months back, and can never get over it. It is the sheer brilliance of the author, the way he pours life into his characters, and the seething satire beneath what looks like 24-carat garbage! I forced many of my friends into reading this book. Most of them started unwillingly, and at the end, all of them thanked me for introducing this book to them. Read this book, you will never regret it. It is sad that so brilliant a writer should end his life prematurely.
Rating: Summary: A comical semi-autobiographical story from a great author. Review: Ignatius, Jones, and the others take you on a hilarious roller coaster tour of the New Orleans pornographic picture industry!!! It is smoking hot with strippers, hookers, gays, and alcoholics centered in the Night Of Joy bar!!!
Rating: Summary: Better than my mother Review: This book made so much sense, that I want it to give birth to my child. It really gets to the crux of what it is like to be a complete looser in today's society. My mother has tried to teach me this lesson for years. Walker Percy is the true definition of a fiction novelist, unlike my mother.
Rating: Summary: Hilarious! Review: That pretty much sums it up...hilarious! Excellent book...one of my top 10.
Rating: Summary: Good, but.... Review: ...wouldn't it have been even better 100 pages ligher? Ignatious and the undercover cop are really the only funny characters here. Anything with Mrs. Reilly and Santa was pretty boring. The way all the pieces fit together at the end is very entertaining.
Rating: Summary: This is the funniest book I've ever read. Review: Avoid reading this book in public. People will think you're strange for laughing so hard alone.
Rating: Summary: Comedy or Tragedy? Does it matter? This is a five-star book. Review: The first time I read Confederacy, I was very ambivalent about it. I couldn't decide whether I liked it or not. So I read it again. And then again. Each time, of course, I snickered and laughed out loud in a couple of places. (Miss Trixie trying to help "Gloria" off the floor, Ignatius rallying the factory workers and becoming aroused as they lifted him onto the table, the infamous letter to Ableman...well, you get the point.) And yet--there was something immensely pathetic about the book and the characters. I gave it to my daughter to read--she has worn out four paperback copies. I have worn out three. I think this has to be one of my two or three favorite books of all time, for several reasons. First, it is so extremely well-written. Even after the first reading, when I wasn't sure I liked it, I could appreciate that it was so well-written that this in itself could have won it the Pulitzer. Secondly, the characters are real people. I have never been to New Orleans, but trust me, there are people like Jones, and Lana, and Gonzalez, and Mrs. Gonzalez, and Mrs. Reilly and her gentleman friend everywhere. With each reading, I gain new insight into one of the characters. And finally, it perks me up to realize that my life isn't so bad after all, compared to Ignatius and his valve and his complete inability to hold a job or do anything meaningful with his life--or compared to his mother, putting up with Ignatius. The pathos equals the comedy. Actually, that may be its best quality--that it can describe and detail several truly pathetic lives in a way that an outsider looking in can get past the tragedy and the pathos and laugh. And isn't that what comedy is all about?
Rating: Summary: I loved it - I don't know why Review: Given the fact that Ignatius J. Reilly is a pompous, flatulent git, it makes be wonder exactly why it is I loved this book so much. Ignatius shows us the worst in us, yet because he never amounts to much, he also shows us that he is not to be emulated. One of the opening paragraphs wherein Toole describes Mr. Reilly's odd and unsanitary costume, his "fleshy balloon of a head," and that fact that he scans the crowd "looking for signs of bad taste in dress" perfectly sums up Ignatius and his world view. I didn't care that I didn't agree with him at all, but rather, for some strange reason, found it interesting to follow this "working boy" (which was another paradox) in his rather mundane misadventures.
Rating: Summary: More treasure then trash. Review: One of the two of John Kennedy Toole's greatest and only works is A Confederacy of Dunces. I found that the words that Toole wrote seen to bring the reader into the story and lets their imagination take them right next to Ignatius and the other characters. I view this book as one of the greatest literature works of our day. Although I view some parts of the book as disturbing and disgusting, I find that I was able to see things from Ignatius J. Reilly's point of view, some of the time. I was able to laugh at the mishaps that Ignatius constantly gets in to, however, I could never fully understand where he was coming from due to the fact that I have never been to New Orleans. I couldn't help but laugh at the constant insulting that went on between Myrna Minkoff and Ignatius in their letters that they continuously sent to each other. I have seldom laughed so much while reading a book. I highly suggest this book to almost all people that ask me for their opinion. It's funny and probably one of a kind.
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