A Confederacy of Dunces

Rating:
Summary: Greatest American novel of the 20th century
Review: I have read this book seventeen times and I'm not a slow learner - I just loved it that much. The main character, Ignatius Reilly, struggles with a modern world that has lost its bearings as he clings to the "theology and geometry" of the Middle Ages. This book will make you laugh out loud with its biting sarcasm and outlandish characters

Rating:
Summary: A winner that didn't last. Only a mothers love remained
Review: The story behind the book is almost better than the work. But make no mistake, the work will endure.

Rating:
Summary: Ignatius The Insipid
Review: Maybe it was the fact that I have read so many positive reviews about this book throughout the years or the Pulitzer prize that this bood won that made me want to read "A Confederacy of Dunces". I had high hopes for the book but soon found out that I was duped. I realize this book is meant to be a satire but the characters are so over the top that it is impossible to like any of the characters. When I started reading this book the opening passages described Ignatius as someone that was a little slower than the rest of us. He had no endearing qualities because he is at once complaining about his valve and at the same time eating like a pig.
The story arc isn't complete either. I finished this book with a completely unsatisfied and empty feeling. You somewhat know where Ignatius ends up but there is a character introduced in the middle of the book (Dr. Talc) that serves no real purpose other than to take up space. He is introduced and there is some backstory about Ignatius and Myrna but then Dr. Talc is slowly written out of the story with no real ending for the character and no story arc written for him. It felt as if 40 pages or so were just wasted when some backstory could have been explained in just a few pages without introducing a character that is superfluous.
I would like to continue writing about how this book could have been better but I would rather just read a book that is more well written that doesn't feel like it needs to use a vocabulary that most of society doesn't use. If I had written that book I don't know if I would want to write any more books after this one for the thought of being "lashed about the shoulders" as Ignatius likes to write about some of his acquaintances.
I am giving this book three stars because there was potential but it is far from being humerous.

Rating:
Summary: Depraved, nasty, disgusting.... and a complete masterpiece!
Review: I'm sure 99% of the reviews here will rave about the humor of the book, so further testimonial regarding the comedic greatness of this book probably isn't necessary. What else is truly special about this book, however, is its mastery of American written english, and its portrayal of New Orleans spoken accents of the early sixties. As you read the book, you can hear the people speak and see the city in perfect, rich, and colorful detail. Perhaps the best part is Toole's absolute ability to describe situations, objects, and people with perhaps the richest, most creative use of simile I have have ever seen from an American writer. It's a shame that much of the language and subsequent humor will be lost to those who aren't American (although I believe quirky Brits will cry with laughter when they read this). I am on to my second reading of the book, and the second time through is even better than the first. And each chapter, paragraph, sentence, and word is so complete, I can set the book down for a month and come back to it, and it seems as if I had just finished reading the previous chapter yesterday. And of course I'm laughing all the while. And the best part of it all? The ending will not dissapoint the reader. I half expected this book to end weakly, but it doesn't. I will never forget this book, and most people I know feel the same way. Too bad Toole killed himself. Genious gone before it was even discovered, truly tragic. But in reading the book, this fact only leads the reader to appreciate and be thankful that something of Toole was left for us to enjoy and admire. I can only imagine that he must have been an incredibly amazing individual, and funny as hell! Read it, this is a must for anyone, casual or avid reader.

Rating:
Summary: What a loathsome, unpleasant bunch of idiots.
Review: I've heard so much about this book and was able to pick up a copy for 50 cents at a used book sale. I'm glad that's all I spent; nothing about it engaged me. Ignatius spends so much time playing the victim, he reminds me of people I know in real life and can't stand. His mother's no better, clucking and fussing over him when she should be kicking him out of the house. I stopped about a third of the way through chapter 2, they irritated me so much.

Rating:
Summary: A literary trip worth taking
Review: This novel's brawl of a plot revolves around one of the most memorable characters in 20th century American fiction: the grossly rotund, incredibly verbose and most heavily egocentric braggart Ignatius Reilly. An oafish loser, in some respects, Reilly also exercises a most beautiful mind and lyrical tongue. Revolving around Reilly is a cast of freakish characters that are also defined by their weaknesses and unfulfilled dreams. The setting is New Orleans. And this literary trip into a grim and desperate part of the Big Easy is definitely worth taking.

Rating:
Summary: The Best Comic Novel ... ever?
Review:
"A Confederacy of Dunces" is not for all tastes, but it is perhaps the funniest book I have ever read. It is a novel that, for me, periodically prompts literally uncontrollable laughter, and which grows even funnier with each reading.

The plot, which serves primarily as a frame supporting a series of astonishingly inventive and humorous set-pieces, centers around the conflicted sexual and intellectual life of Ignatius Reilly, a self-important, bloated medieval scholar living in 1960s New Orleans, and his unsuccessful attempts (at his mother's urging) to find a job suitable to a man of his unique skills. Each job -- highlights are his stints as an employee of a near-bankrupt pants company and a hot dog salesman -- descends into a disaster of epic proportions. Ignatius lives with his mother on Constantinople Street in Uptown New Orleans, where he spends long hours obsessing about his digestive difficulties and and dutifully reporting his travails in a series of Big Chief tablets, which contain what he believes to be his definitive examination of the collapse of civilization in the modern age.

The success of the comedy is based in large part upon Toole's ability to induce the reader to accept the world he creates on its own terms. And what a world it is. Each character is, as in every farce, in some sense a caricature, but a fully realized one. Each is ridiculous, but is not treated with contempt by the author; each is a failure but emerges from the depths of the comedic darkness to achieve a certain tragic nobility. Even Ignatius, a character who, if actually encountered, would be more offensive (although not evil) than could be imagined, emerges as a twisted Don Quixote, admirably fighting the windmills of modernity with his boorish behavior. Toole also captures the lunacy of life in New Orleans as it is rarely shown in novels and films of the shallow, stereotypical "Big Easy" variety: its innumerable quirks, ethnic groups, neighborhoods and accents are depicted in lush detail with only slight exaggeration. Any person visiting New Orleans after reading "A Confederacy of Dunces" cannot help but smile when he or she first catches sight of a Lucky Dog stand in the French Quarter.

I base the qualification in my introduction that "Confederacy" is not for all tastes upon the reactions of some to whom I have recommended it. It is a book that one either loves or hates, and it is certainly hated by some. It has flaws, to be sure: certain scenes go on far too long, some diversions are unsuccessful, and Toole is unable to sustain the comic fervor through to the ending, which falls somewhat flat. However, I know of no comedic novel that can compete toe to toe with the scenes that hit the mark. And there are more of those than I can count. At the risk of being obnoxious, I need to recommend another wonderful comic novel -- a recent discovery I made on Amazon -- The Losers' Club by Richard Perez. Another novel people seem to love or hate, but exceptional in its own twisted, soulful way.


Rating:
Summary: HIstory repeats itself, BUY NOW!
Review: Synopsis

A monument of sloth, rant and contempt, a behemoth of fat, flatulence and furious suspicion of anything modern - this is Ignatius J Reilly of New Orleans, noble crusader against a world of dunces. In magnificent revolt against the twentieth century, Ignatius propels his monstrous bulk among the flesh posts of the fallen city, documenting life on his Big Chief tablets as he goes, until his maroon-haired mother decrees that Ignatius must work.
First lines

A Confederacy of Dunces is a novel written by John Kennedy Toole, but not published during his lifetime. Through the efforts of the writer Walker Percy and Toole's mother, the book was published in 1980; it quickly became a cult classic and won a Pulitzer Prize a year later.

The title is a reference to a saying by the classic master of satire, Jonathan Swift: "When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him." (Thoughts on Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting)

The story is set in New Orleans, Louisiana at the start of the 1960s. The central character is Ignatius J. Reilly, an intelligent but slothful man still living with his mother in Uptown New Orleans who, because of family circumstances, must set out to get a job for the first time in his life at age thirty. In his quest for employment he has various adventures with colorful French Quarter characters.

Major characters


Ignatius J. Reilly

Ignatius is something of a modern Don Quixote - eccentric and creative, sometimes perhaps to the point of being delusional. He tries to find jobs requiring little or no work which will allow him at the same time to further his plans to somehow achieve greatness.

He disdains modern civilization, especially pop culture, but gets a perverse delight in immersing himself in order to mock its vapidity and express his outrage with its lack of philosophy and geometry. He prefers the enlightened philosophy of the Middle Ages, especially that of Boethius.


Myrna Minkoff

Myrna "The Minx" is a beatnik Jew from New York City whom Ignatius met while she was in college in New Orleans. Their political, social, religious, and personal orientations could hardly be more different, but Myrna and Ignatius have a fascination with each other. For most of the novel she is seen only in the regular correspondence which the two keep up since her return to New York. Officially, they both deplore everything the other stands for. Though probably neither of them would admit it, their correspondence indicates that, though separated by half a continent, many of their actions are done with hopes to impress the other.

Irene Reilly

Mrs. Reilly is Ignatius's long-widowed mother. She still thinks of Ignatius as an adolescent, encouraging him to think of himself that way. She is fond of drinking cheap wine and is generally tipsy.


FOr once these critics were spot on!

Published reviews

A masterwork of comedy ... A dozen characters bounce off each other, physically and verbally, through a plot of such disarming inventiveness that it seems to generate itself effortlessly ... A pungent work of slapstick, satire and intellectual incongruities ... it is nothing less than a grand comic fugue.
The New York Times

Witty, exuberant and addictive, a mocking eulogy of life in New Orleans by a modern Rabelais.
The Times

If a book's price is measured against the laughs it provokes, A Confederacy of Dunces is the bargain of the year.
Time

The hero of John Kennedy Toole's incomparable comic classic is one Ignatius J. Reilly, "huge, obese, fractious, fastidious, a latter-day Gargantua, a Don Quixote of the French Quarter. His story bursts with wholly original characters, denizens of New Orleans' lower depths, incredible true-to-life dialogue, and the zaniest series of high and low comic adventures." --
Henry Kisor in the Chicago Sun-Times

An astonishingly good novel, radiant with intelligence and artful high comedy.
Newsweek

A brilliant and evocative novel.
San Francisco Chronicle

A gem-one of the funniest books ever written.
New Republic

Rating:
Summary: Slapstick For Readers
Review: A Confederacy of Dunces basks in the same limelight as the acting of Laurel and Hardy or The Three Stooges through John Kennedy Toole's character Ignatius Reilly. A Confederacy of Dunces truly is an American novel whose characters are over the top, who all like to hate the quasi(?) intellectual protagonist, fat and flatulent Ignatius Reilly. Self-absorbed and flat-out wrong most of the time, Ignatius pinballs his way through life comically messing up anyone and everyone (who has the misfortune to run into him) through his bungling, over-bearing thought process. A great read, a great book. Kudos to John Kennedy Toole.

Rating:
Summary: Flat Out Funny!... If You Like Slapstick Comedy
Review: Ignatius J. Reilly is perhaps the funniest character in literature, and I don't say that lightly, because he has no idea that he is a complete loser. Horribly fat, lacking in any social graces, and oblivious to any consequences of his actions, he considers himself an educated scholar, immune to the mundane things the rest of us need to do, such as work. Unfortunately, he is forced into this world when his mother pulls the rug out from under him.

Every character in this book is a caricature to some degree, and ridiculous because of it -- yet, they are instantly recognizable as similar to people you've met in some part of your life. There is a Joseph Heller-esque humor here, but without the political overtones. I'd compare this humor to a Kurt Vonnegut or Douglas Adams, except that it is grounded much more in reality -- it's just that the humor within this text is silly humor in that same vein.

Much like many great books, this takes a few pages to get into, but it really is a laugh-out-loud book. It's the kind of book that when you see strangers reading it, you feel compelled to start talking about it with them. This is slapstick humor with an advanced degree -- it's silly event after silly event, but done so intelligently that you can't help but read this book with a wry grin on your face. Try this book! If you like slapstick you will enjoy it. Another book I need to recommend -- completely unrelated to Toole, but very much on my mind since I purchased it "used" off Amazon is "The Losers' Club" by Richard Perez, an exceptional, highly entertaining little novel I can't stop thinking about.