Rating: 
Summary: Avoid this book at all cost
Review: I read this book at the insistence of a "friend" who wanted to know what I thought of it. After reading several chapters and not finding it engaging at all, I told her so and tried to give it back. She wouldn't take the book back until I had finished it.
There are many books in this world that, once you begin them, you can't put them down. With this book, once I put it down, I found it extremely difficult to pick it back up again.
This book has absolutely nothing whatsoever to recommend it. It is without a doubt the single worst piece of literature I have ever inflicted upon myself. The characters without exception are unlikable and, not merely bland, but actively unpleasant, with the worst of a bad lot being Ignatius Reilly himself. There is no plot to speak of, just a series of increasingly hostile encounters between Ignatius and everybody else unfortunate enough to meet him. It is utterly incomprehensible to me how this book even got published, let alone won a pulitzer. It is incomparably bad.
Do not waste your time.
Rating: 
Summary: Hysterical
Review: Ignatius J. Reilly is one of the best characters in a book, ever! The absurdities he deals with are a riot and kept me laughing throughout. Strange people, stranger jobs... the way he deals with it all brings to mind two other book characters, Eddie Delano in John Orozco's 'Delano' and Lenny Castellaneta's factitious self portrait in 'No One's Even Bleeding'. All of these men try to make sense of bizarre situations they encounter in their lives. It's amazing, though, how well 'Dunces' holds up over the years. Second time I've read it, second time I've loved it!
Rating:
Summary: A Don Quixote of the French Quarter
Review: Ignatius J. Reilly, the over sized hero of John Kennedy's Toole's Confederacy Of Dunces, is a modern day Don Quixote of the French Quarter. Is Ignatius a dead beat or a genius? The reader is never sure. The plot revolves around his various attempts to hold jobs while living at home with his increasingly suspicious mother. The book's episodic events explode one after the other like fire works. Every line of dialogue is perfectly hilarious. Indeed, the entire story delights in the reverabations of It's voices. An array of strange charcters, each with his or her own personal agenda regarding Ignatius, parade through the story. Kennedy's greatest creation is the mother of Ignatius, Mrs. Reilly. A woman determined to see her son make good. Kennedy has rendered The banter between mother and son in such a way so as to be both full of pathos and heart breakingly funny. Confederacy Of Dunces is an underappreicated great American novel...
Rating:
Summary: Why cant there be more!
Review: I loved this book. The only thing I disliked is that there is no more to look forward to. Toole's understanding and usage of southern dialect is impeccable. If you love southern novels, you will love this!
Rating:
Summary: Unbelievably and unexpectedly good
Review: In fact, this novel is so good it is now one of my most favorites, even though my first impression of the book was that trying it was a mistake.I had recently been disappointed by another novel, Catch-22. A Confederacy of Dunces had the same light, comical tone as Catch-22, but the subject of it, Ignatius P. Reilly, was a character more grotesque (it seemed to me) than any of the numerous annoying characters in Catch-22. I was expecting the worst. However, as I read on, I gradually and unconsciously began to really enjoy the story. The novel quickly developed an interesting main plot, along with many interesting subplots. I met many characters, and found myself very interested in them and in what would happen to them. The writing style was excellent, and there were some sections where the writing was awesome (such as the section where we first meet Dr. Talc). The novel was also very funny. The best part of this novel was the ending, where all the little subplots fall together into a great conclusion. I think it's one of the best endings ever. (I've seen some reviewers call this a canned Hollywood ending. It isn't, any more than the ending of, say, The Tempest was. The ending was well supported by the story.) In addition to being a highly engaging book with a great ending, there was a kind of indescribable unity to it, that was very delightful. I guess the best way I can put it is that all the characters shared a common "dunceness" that made them all somehow related to each other. Basically, I think this was just a great novel.
Rating:
Summary: Funny and strange and wonderful!
Review: Books are such a personal thing; you never know who's going to like a book just because you did. I love this book, but can't promise any of you will. The best I can do is offer other books I have enjoyed as much and, as nearly as I can tell, for similar reasons, for comparrison: Hocus Pocus, by Vonnegut (and many others by Vonnegut as well)
Portnoy's Complaint, Roth
Me Talk Pretty One Day, Sedaris
A Prayer for Owen Meany, Irving
The Corrections, Franzen I'm not saying this book is quite like any of those, I'm just saying that if you like those, you may like this. In fact, one of my favorite things about this book is that it isn't quite like any other book I've ever read! That, and the fact that I laughed out loud several times, make this book one of my all-time favorites. It really is a shame that Mr. Toole won't be writing any more books.
Rating: 
Summary: A bit of a let-down (so far)
Review: First, I will admit that this is quite possibly premature, given that I am only 2/3 through the book. But so far it's moderately disappointing. The story is entertaining as so many reviews have pointed out, but I was expecting more.
This book was recommended to me in the course of a conversation about Tom Robbins (as in "if you like Robbins, you'll love..."), and it has not lived up to the expectations set out in that conversation. I was given to believe that Toole wrote with the same abiding passion for the words he chooses as does Robbins, but I have yet to see that. Sure, Reilly's own musings and proclamations are fun and eloquent, but that eloquence is gratuitous as often as it is anything else. And outside of that, the rest of the book, while it does a good job of character development, is a little on the bland side.
In terms of a literary ride, this is a rollercoaster with one loop, a couple of drops, and a lot of long flat track in between. But if you want a ride on the prose equivalent of a mechanical bull, pick up Tom Robbins. Follow-up - finnished the book and I stand by what I said above.
Rating:
Summary: Prodigious bona fide farcical masterpiece!
Review: The late John Kennedy Toole penned a veritably irrefutable masterpiece in the ingenious A Confederacy of Dunces. Although inestimably depressing that he committed suicide due to Simon Schuster's publication refusal, Toole and his incomparable genius live on vicariously through this resounding work of undeniable merit. I find it seemingly impossible and self-defeating to sum up this great work so as not to be redundant or spoil it for others. Suffice it to say, I tore through this book in two days and reveled in its farcical and satirical ingenuity as I laughed out loud early and often, as it were, that I actively yearned for it not to come to a close. The anachronistic, bombastic, and verbose rhetoric of our intrepid & endearing protagonist, Ignatius J. Reilly, riotously pervades A Confederacy of Dunces and makes for the most incredibly vital and overtly comical character I have encountered since Shakespeare's Falstaff himself in Henrvy IV I&II. John Kennedy Toole's amazingly vivid characterization and unparalleled cynicism emanate throughout this bona fide tour de force with an unmistakably resonant subtlety. As the irrepressible Ignatius would note, it would be absolutely shameless effrontery and an utterly unspeakable abomination for A Confederacy of Dunces NOT to be mentioned among the top 10 American novels of all-time - this goes without saying. 5 Shining Stars! "I dust a bit...in addition, I am at the moment writing a lengthy indictment against our century. When my brain begins to reel from my literary labors, I make an occasional cheese dip."
Rating:
Summary: Warning to the reader
Review: Ignatius Reilly is an over-educated medievalist philosopher who lives with his mom and can't seem to hold a job. He is also quite possibly the most entertainingly original character in all of American literature. His misadventurous exploits are unlike anything you can possibly imagine, and if you aren't careful you'll laugh so hard that you'll hurt yourself.
Rating:
Summary: Hilarious and completely original
Review: John Kennedy Toole's masterpiece of a novel
owes its genius tothe protagonist: Ignatius J. Reilly,
a character without parallel in fiction.He is totally original and literally lareger than life and so realistic I keep
wondering why I haven't met him yet. Hisover the top morality and his medeival"world view" color everything he does. This novel revolves around the daily misadventures
of Ignatius as he tries to find work in
New Orleans and the people
he comes in contact with.
These encounters are incredibly funny andbizarre yet the author never lets the scenes collapse into absurdity.Each episode of hilarity rapidly falls apart in stupendous specatcle
as Ignatius tries his hand at secretarial work, as a hot dog vendor etc. The supporting characters are also fully realised and bursting with life-the hipster Jones trying to sabotage
his pathetic job, Ignatius's mother and her friends, and especailly Myrna Minkoff our hero's improbable
former girlfriend. Anyone who enjoys a good long laugh or a revealing look into New Orleans
and the 60's will love this extraordinary book.
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