Rating: 
Summary: not nearly
Review: I chose this book because of it's "humor" and the intrigue of a work by someone who later commit suicide, sick yes but the truth. i didn't enjoy it. The main character really got under my skin and when i'm quick to laugh, i seldom did and was disappointed. Strangely it wasn't the counter-culture themes, the transvestites or the racial issues that bothered me, it really was Ignatius who repelled me at every turn. Maybe that's the point and that makes this a really good book.. maybe, but good book i want to read again, and i almost wish i'd never read this in the first place.
Rating: 
Summary: A Confederacy of Dunces
Review: I'm truly surprised that I've ran across a person or two who didn't like this novel. It is easily my favorite book of all time. It fulfills all the cliches.....original, likeable characters, intertwined stories....The first few pages will have you hooked. If it doesn't...another genre is probably in order.....I'm going to go read it again now.
Rating:
Summary: Now I know why Toole kills himself
Review: As some have reviewed, I was one of those captivated by the prologue. The story of how the book was published is far better than the story itself. I too, found it difficult to pick up this book once it was put down. A mish-mash of vignettes, dream states, and letters by the 'hero' created a mood of boredom and disappointment. The boredom came from this book just not being funny. The disappointment mainly at how much time I was wasting in continuing to read it. I believe in finishing what I started and was determined to the end to give this a chance. The joke was on me. I was the true dunce. In reflection, maybe that's the irony here?
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.
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