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Summary: Satisfaction Guaranteed.
Review: Truly a great book. I have lately begun insisting that my friends read the book, and as an inducement I offer them the following guarantee: "If this is not one of the ten best books you've ever read, I'll refund your purchase price and buy you another novel of your choice." So far about twenty friends / co-workers have given in to my proselytizing and I haven't had to pay up once. Need I say more? Well...I can't resist saying just one thing more: Read the reviews below, then read the book, then re-read the reviews. You will feel a kniship whth the vast majority of readers who rate the book a 9 or 10, but will be astonished and confused that there are a few simpletons who rate the book a 2 or 3. Then, like a flash, you will remember the book's title, your confusion will disappear, and you'll realize that there will always be reviewers who give truly great books 2s and 3s. After all, we're surrounded by a confederacy of dunces.
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Summary: damn fine book
Review: the importance of one's pyloric valve in conjunction with the theology and geometry of life has never been so well defined as in this fine literary masterpiece. GOD rest his soul!!
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Summary: "Spirit of New Orleans"
Review: Experiencing 'N'awlins during Mardi Gras is secondary to reliving the experience of Confederacy of Dunces in its natural setting. Having just done both, I have to say I was more in awe of the latter. For years, this book has been the favorite of myself and my brother's. My brother passes it out like the Gideons do the Gospel. We have spent many hours wishing a movie would be made of the book. Many more hours have been spent casting it in our imaginations. Unfortunately, several "Ignatious'(Ignatii?)" have passed on. I had heard at one time Divine, John Belushi, then John Candy... (our choice?----John Goodman-hey, John, you married a local girl...). But, really, all you have to do is visit the phenonenom that is New Orleans and you will encounter many of the characters, living everyday lives! If you didn't like the book-you have not experienced New Orleans. I promise you. I have lived in many regions of the U.S.; but, New Orleans, is unlike any other city I've ever visited. From the accents of the Creole to the 'Back-O-town' jive; from the beignets to the pralines; from the "has-been" stripper playing 'Off Bourbon', to the female impersonator playing 'On Bourbon': every lifestyle, every custom is exhibited in full form and co-exists in this book; as in the city. It hurts me that the author did not get the recognition he deserved. He ranks up there with Somerset Maupin, Dave Barry, Lewis Grizzard, Garrison Keillor; to name a few authors famous for their regional accuity. This author had a pulse on the "heart" of N'Awlins...it's up to us who love this book to make the beat go on....
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Summary: UNFORGETTABLE!
Review: I took it to the beach back in the early 80s and laughed out loud twice on the first page. My stomach ached from laughter. I can still smell those hot dogs Ignatius sold from his cart. The book is a complete trip and the true life story of the author's end makes the trip even stranger. This is book is a keeper. I recommend it to anyone with a healthy sense of humour.
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Summary: One of my all time favorites.
Review: If you do not appreciate the complexity of Toole's world view, you shall feel the sting of the lash accross your pitiful shoulders!
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Summary: The sweaty armpit of life
Review: I really liked this book. It was hilarious. Everybody in the book is a lunatic in one way or another from Jones who likes to wear sunglasses inside a dimly lit bar at night to the main character Ignatius Reilly, whose method of eating jelly donuts made me squirm (sucking the jelly out and throwing the rest of it back in the box). I don't give this a ten simply because it gave me an uneasy feeling sometimes in the pit of my stomach. Its like I stuck my finger in some muck. From a literary standpoint I do give this a ten.
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Summary: The Title Speaks to Those Who Don't Get It!
Review: After reading "Confederacy" for the second time (and consider it one of my favorite books), and having only briefly perused the comments listed here...all I can say is that the title of the book says it all. If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the confederacy.
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Summary: Your dress can be theologically and geometrically incorrect!
Review: The book is best described by its title and a working knowledge of Boethius, the philosopher.
The word "dunce" is derived from John Duns Scotus, the celebrated scholastic theologian, called `Doctor Subtilis' the Subtle Doctor, who died in 1308. His works on theology, philosophy, and logic, were textbooks in the Universities, in which (as at Oxford) his followers, called Scotists, were a predominating Scholastic sect, until the 16th c., when the system was attacked with ridicule, first by the humanists, and then by the reformers, as a farrago of needless entities, and useless distinctions. The Dunsmen or Dunses, on their side, railed against the `new learning', and the name Duns or Dunce, already synonymous with `cavilling sophist' or `hair-splitter', soon passed into the sense of `dull obstinate person impervious to the new learning', and of `blockhead incapable of learning or scholarship'.
Boethius, is a 500 century Italian scholar, wrote texts on geometry and arithmetic which were of poor quality but used for many centuries during a time when mathematical achievement in Europe was at a remarkable low.
Reilly, the obese, farting, belching central character believes that Boethius together with the cartoon character batman, uphold all that is worthwhile in philosophy! His worldview is ludicruously insane, his actions that of a madman. During his graduate years, he advised one of his professors, to hang himself by his underdeveloped testicles. His girlfriend, thinks that the problems of the world can be solved only through liberated sex. The thoughts and actions of all the characters in the story seem like some sort of a tribal incantation. Yet, the foreknowledge of events, the delight in repetition gives strength to storytelling. The overall conglomeration is precisely - a confederacy of dunces. In parts the book is funny, but together the book shows us how easy it is to get trapped in our respective small worlds.
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Summary: You're a sad human being if you did NOT like this book.
Review: Given some of the comments made previously regarding Ignatius Riley's "sad" existence, I must say that those finding him to be such a sad character are, themselves, sad. What limited and reprehensible strain of thought do you people come from. This is arguably the best book written in the 20th century.
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Summary: Something wrong with your sense of humor if you don't like
Review: I read this many years ago (late 70's? early 80's?) when it first hit paperback. I have been recommending it to people ever since. A friend of mine once read it on a long airplane flight. He said people were looking at him like he was deranged, he was laughing out loud so often. Ignatius' letter to the firm he lambasts so ridiculously still gets me weeping with laughter. I once actually had a friend of a friend tell me that she couldn't detect the humor. From that point on, I felt like there was something definitely wrong with her. Buy this now.
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