Rating: 
Summary: too sad for me
Review: The author's command of the language is breathtaking. His depictions of the characters are razor-sharp. The book is a magnificent creation. I still didn't like it. The protagonist makes me cringe, and I spent much of the book trying to will him to get himself together. Only a good writer can get readers involved like that, of course. I just don't like to get involved in this kind of unhappy, depressed tangle -- not in real life, and not in literature. I recommend that people try the book. Some will abandon it after 50 pages. Some readers will enjoy it immensely. Very few will ever forget it. Finally, I offer the opinion that the author was a genius. I did not care for the subject matter of this book, but I say the same of some of the works of Charles Dickens. If this author had lived, I think he would have created a large body of significant work and that I would have enjoyed a good part of it.
Rating: 
Summary: I have seen Ignatius, and he is us
Review: Five stars for the sheer lunacy and skilled wordcraft in this book! On behalf of all the misfits in the world, I would hope that the writers of the few one-star reviews would learn to laugh at themselves and find more understanding in their hearts. The book put me in touch with my inner Ignatius. Ah, the joys of expounding on one's worldview! The Internet is busy breeding a whole population of Ignatiuses (Ignatii)? under our very noses. I notice that many readers have gone on about how "hysterically" funny this book is, and declare that if you aren't rolling and snorting with gut-busting fits of hilarity on every page, there's something wrong with you. Well, I fall somewhere in between the helpless guffaws and the stone-faced indignation. We're brought up not to laugh at unfortunates. This book asks you to do just that, and of course it will make you cringe. ("Seinfeld" built its entire success on making people cringe! And those were not exactly likable characters either). Face the Ignatius in the mirror, America!
Rating:
Summary: I loved it, I hated it, but I couldn't stop reading it.
Review: Not my kind of book! However, from the outset I was captivated by the larger-than-life characters who were carrying on such small, miserable and bizarre existences. What kept me reading was the bizarre and fatalistic way in which the characters repeatedly impacted each others lives. I finished the book because I had to witness the inevitable explosion that takes place when opposing forces are brought together. Tremendously rich characters with brilliantly conceived, hilarious interactions!
Rating:
Summary: Funniest Book I ever read.
Review: Brilliant, hilarious, a must read
Rating:
Summary: Toole's Genius and Drama are Ignatius
Review: If you can't find the book funny, there is something wrong with you. Eiher you think yourself of too serious and sophisticated a person, or you have no sensibility towards troubled people. Ignatius is a tormented genius full of ego, but Oh God, full of wit. Clearly Toole's life and experience is ignatius, the unreconized genius, but it is tragic that our society of stupid envious people destry these types of rare geniuses, whom all they need is understanding, and to be taught not to depend on people's aceptance. It is a very funny book, but it is sad, for they are heavy characters, but few people if ever in the history of literature have been able to shine so brightly under a ton of garbage. It is a book for those who do not loath and spite society's poor, depressed and unsophisticated, for they too have the capacity of genius that must endure its own hell. No wonder a mother Toole's mother after his suicide, kept 'till her eighties going from publisher to publisher to get the book on print. That my friends was the REAl confederacy of the dunces, and I can't but thank my mother whom introduced me to it! Hail Mama! Hail Toole and her Mama and HA HA HA !!!
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic! One of the funniest, smartest books written.
Review: Hilarious, witty, and overwhelmingly enjoyable. THe characters and situations in this novel grabbed me, seduced me and won't let me go. I loved New Orleans before I read this and now I love it even more!
Rating:
Summary: A "Must Read" book for all Americans
Review: One of the funniest and most creative books I've ever read. I've now signed up to join the "Crusade For Moorish Dignity." A must read!
Rating:
Summary: It was better the second time around!
Review: I first read Dunces in 1982 when I was in college. Needless to say, I never saw that copy again as it got passed to every one of my friends! Coming across it after so many years was like meeting a long-lost friend who had improved with age! Mr. Toole has deprived us of a wonderful, hilarious character.
Rating:
Summary: Funniest Book I Ever Read
Review: That's just what it is. Before I got through the first six pages, I used to think laughing out loud when reading silently was something only crazy people did. Kennedy's creation of Ignatius and his mother is the greatest, most tragic and most authentic depiction of familial love in all of American literature.
Rating:
Summary: hilarious!
Review: This is one of the funniest book I've ever read - the characters are just unbelievably pathetic. That J.K.Toole managed to invent a protagonist as absurd yet convincing as Ignatius is reason enough for me to consider him - contrary to other opinions - worthy of the Pulitzer Prize.
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