A Confederacy of Dunces

Rating:
Summary: Listen to the audio version!
Review: Artie Johnson does a fabulous job of bringing Toole's characters to life. No slapstick--just the language that Toole wrote. If you liked the book, you'll really enjoy listening.Wish I could remember who I loaned my tapes to

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Hideously wonderful
Review: I'd been up twenty four hours traveling from Belgium, through Germany to Denmark to visit some friends. We were riding in a brand new, beautiful Danish coach and I was in the company of three, very proper looking, older Danish ladies. Along with my body, my mind was tired and when my mind gets tired it amplifies things. Bad gets worse, funny gets rib cracking, if you know what I mean? I was on the part about Miss Trixie. I could not contain myself. I would read one sentence and burst into hideous laughter. Then I would calm myself and read another and the same thing would happen. I would go back and read the same sentence and just crack up. I couldn't stand it. I was making a complete fool out of myself and had lost control. I could not stop reading and I could not stop laughing. When I looked at the ladies I thought they might be plotting to send for someone to bring a sizable bag with a few rocks in it to take care of this "offensive" Yankee. At this time I decided to extract my hideous self to the hallway and read out there. I thought I was getting strange looks in the compartment, but here, in the hallway, I knew it wouldn't be long before someone showed up with some manacles and the bag. I was forced to retreat to the compartment and the proper Danish ladies. I started reading again. The laughter followed. Burst after burst of demented hyena laughter. I have a laugh that has been labled contagious and the next thing, I'm hearing little chuckles from the proper Danish ladies. I look at them and start laughing. They look at me and burst into laughter and then all break out cigars and start smoking. Cool. This is the funniest book I have ever read, all three times, and I'm ready for it again. My step father, who is rather proper and hates the disgusting commercial TV violence and rotten launguage picked it up and started in the middle. I raised an eybrow and watched. He turned to the front, read the Forward, and never stopped. He read it in a day and a half. This is a book that I pick up in used book stores to give to people I meet who like to read good stuff and have open and uncluttered minds, slightly sick. Try it, it's a kick right in the funny bones. SPARK [e-mail] PS It would make a wonderful movie if the characters were picked properly. This review remains the property of Spark Wright

Rating:
Summary: The most perverted masterpiece ever read!
Review: John Kennedy Toole has written the funniest book I've ever read, read and read again. My first contact with it, back in 1989, had an enormous effect on my vocabulary. After reading it I started to, influenced by the main character Ignatius, use cool expression like "You perverted mongoloid" and "I'll whip you 'till you drop". Guess if some people were shocked... "A Confederacy of Dunces" is a must read for all openminded people

Rating:
Summary: A truely great humorus book
Review: This book is one of hte best books I have ever read. This is the story of a man who thinks that world would be a better place and the people would be happier if the fallowed him. How his half-drunken mother crashed and needs money so he goes to work wit different jobs and it builds up with many different characters. The author writes in a way that when you read the book, you can actually hear the characters as they interact. The author also gives descriptions to picture the people and the places with using minimal text keeping the book from slowing down

Rating:
Summary: Delusions of Adequacy
Review: Delusions of Adequacy describes anyone who fails to find humor in this book .... The few parts where the book is stretched out a bit much, some of the journal entries of our working boy, can be skipped over without missing a thing. I've read it twice - recently and 7 years ago. It was a riot each time. Sincerely and with kind regards, - The Central Scrutinizer

Rating:
Summary: An Unslapped Knee
Review: I can't imagine why people are howling about this ponderous droll. My knees remain unslapped.I didn't even crack a decent grin before finally giving up. The phonetics are inaccurate to a fault and the characters sad and pitiable. Hilarious stuff. If you're among the throngs who seem to find hilarity in tragedy, go for it. You ain't alone, as these reviews indicate

Rating:
Summary: Does not keep it's promises
Review: How hilarious. A fat man and his mother encumber us with their uninteresting lives in New Orleans. If you read other reviews you see that this book promises knee-slapping, uncontrollable howling with every turn of the page. Well I waded through the first 40 pages with nary a grin before giving up on the promise to keep me in paroxisms of laughter. It ain't funny. It ain't interesting. It will, however, cure anyone's insomnia

Rating:
Summary: EVERYONE MUST READ THIS BOOK
Review: This is the most hysterical book I've ever read in my life! I could not put this book down. Recommended by a friend, I read it, my fiancee read it (which is quite unusual as he prefers horror and science fiction) and we all LOVED IT! I even bought a copy for my parents. A wonderful, and even oddly touching book

Rating:
Summary: READ THIS BOOK!!!
Review: The myriad of outstanding reviews already listed here will tell you how truly wonderful this book is. I would like to add my reccomendation for how to read this book. A good friend of mine handed me "Confederacy of Dunces" while sitting beside me on a plane from Minneapolis to New Orleans. I was transported in more ways than one. If you ever thought about going to New Orleans, do it, and read this book before, during and/or after your trip. I found myself feeling as if I were a part of the story when I walked past the very music store Ignatius J. Reilly waits for his mother in front of in the first chapter of the book. I was able to bring the flavor of New Orleans home with me as I continued to read. We all can't jet off to New Orleans as often as we'd like, but "Confederacy of Dunces" can take us there in a style that hilarious doesn't even begin to describe. I only hope John Toole's spirit knows what a great gift he left us in this book. I look forward to curling up with my dog, "Reilly" and reading it again. If you're yearning for another good book, try "Louisiana Power and Light." John Dufresne, while not John Toole, has a similar flair for story-telling, and he briefly makes reference to someone who could be Ignatius in the book

Rating:
Summary: Forgettably unfunny
Review: I bought this book on the strength of its reviews,a nd the fact that I was in the mood for a laugh-out-loud novel. Instead, I have stumbled upon a situation similar to the emperor's new clothes....does everyone really find this book funny, or are they all jumping on the bandwagon? After attempting the first 150 pages, feeling repulsed, and finding little humor, I had to stop. What others must find as humor is really cynicism disguised with a patina of offensiveness. It's sad that O'Toole committed suicide, but if the theory that all novels are autobiographical holds true, Ican see why O'toole/Ignatius did