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Title: A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole ISBN: 0-8021-3020-8 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: November, 1987 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.37 (647 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Absolutely Crazy!
Comment: This book is a genre of it's own! Every single character is millions of miles away from an "average person". Ignatius J. Reilley, the protagonist, is not an overweight bumbling moron. Rather he is a overweight, bumbling, thirty-year old with a masters degree and a fixation with Medieval philosophy. He is a mogul in his own mind and a persuasive one at that, with a sort of midas touch. Anyone who comes near him somehow gets dragged into this twisted, all-too-believable plot which is his life. John Kennedy Toole deals so frankly with a side of human nature that so many authors seem to neglect. The strength of this book is not only in the plot but how the characters interact with one another and how they all become tied together in a massive web of occurences. I was given this book by my English teacher and I'm glad he shared it with me. This is a must read for everyone who needs a rollicking good laugh now and again.
Rating: 5
Summary: Unforgetable!
Comment: Toole's book is an ambitious work of comedy, highlighted by one of the most memorable literary creations ever, Ignatius J. Reilly.
Reilly is an unforgettable character, a self-described anachronism who dresses in a plaid flannel shirt and a green hunter's cap, all the while bemoaning the loss of "taste and decency" in modern times, equating the breakdown of the Medieval system with the ascendancy of chaos and lunacy. He fills notebooks with vitriol detailing his contempt for the regular dregs of society, imbibes and belches up countless bottles of Dr. Nut, and likens his mother to an adolescent floozy. A portly man, he lounges, eats, and farts constantly, his sedentary life interrupted only by a need to find a job.
Reilly's escapades as a working man who never works are simply hilarious. His first job is at a pants factory, where he files away papers by throwing them in the garbage, ignores his boss, and befriends an elderly senile employee named Miss Trixie. After being fired for planning an uprising in the warehouse, Reilly finds a job that is perfect for him--pushing a hot dog cart through downtown New Orleans, dressed in a pirate's costume. When his hot dog cart is stolen, Ignatius smartly quips, "The human desire for food and sex is relatively equal. If there are armed rapes, why should there not be armed hot dog thefts?"
While the character of Ignatius Reilly is undoubtedly exaggerated and perhaps even absurd, Toole uses Reilly to render his indictment of contemporary society, the novel becoming a vehicle in which hoi polloi are relegated to the role of the dunce, forever confined to a world of indecency. Ignatius is the unconventional hero, tragically confined to the fringes of society.
The great tragedy of the novel, however, is author John Kennedy Toole's inability to heed the advice of his own protagonist. In troubling times, Ignatius Reilly, ever devoted to medieval philosophy, would have reminded Toole of Boethius's rota fortunae. Wait long enough and the wheel of fortune will turn your way. Tragically, in his depths of despair, Toole ended his own life, unable to wait for that final turn. Along with this novel, I'd like to recommend another quick Amazon pick: The Losers' Club by Richard Perez
Rating: 4
Summary: A Confederacy of Dunces
Comment: gnatius J Reilly is fat. Ignatius is lazy. He is slothful, arrogant, condescending, self-obsessed, self-absorbed, incapable of empathy, calculating, ignorant, deluded and did I mention obese? After all but causing a car accident thanks to his tendency to 'aid' people with their driving, his mother demands that the unemployed, thirty-year old get a job. He is horrified, certain that gainful employment will disrupt the sporadic work he does on his masterpiece. And of course there is the problem with his valve.
So he finds himself a job. He breezes into the Levy Pants company and demands more pay, later starting time, and then spends his days carefully painting a cross to cheer everyone up. Then he incites a riot. Then he gets fired.
This first job sets a lot of events in motion. Characters are introduced and frequently we enter their lives to see what is happening. This has the effect of diluting Ignatius' presence from the story - but only slightly - however the compromise here is that we know it will all tie in together - we just don't know how.
There is Jones, the black floor-sweeper at the Night of Joy, quite possibly the worst strip-club in all of New Orleans. Mr Levy, the disillusioned son of the original - and best, if we can believe his wife - Mr Levy. George, the mysterious package deliverer. Mancuso, the down on his luck detective, and more. Excluding Jones, these characters all have sub-par development as character, and serve mostly as caricatures. This goes even more so for the lesser characters I have not mentioned.
Events do tie themselves up a little too neatly. There is a sense that every little action, no matter how inconsequential, builds towards a whole, which doesn't really reflect the reality of life, but this is a moot point. Ignatius is an amazing character, so awful, arrogant and just plain mean to every other person imaginable that you will have to fall in love. Who cannot enjoy his Working Boy Journals? Or his love/hate relationship with Myrna? Don't necessarily read this book for plot - which, though strong, plays out like a 1 hour crime special - read it for Ignatius.
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Title: The Neon Bible by John Kennedy Toole ISBN: 0802132073 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: May, 1990 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Ignatius Rising: The Life of John Kennedy Toole by Rene Pol Nevils, Deborah George Hardy ISBN: 0807126802 Publisher: Louisiana State University Press Pub. Date: June, 2001 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Managing Ignatius : The Lunacy of Lucky Dogs and Life in New Orleans by Jerry Strahan ISBN: 0767903242 Publisher: Broadway Pub. Date: 16 February, 1999 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
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Title: The Moviegoer by Walker Percy ISBN: 0375701966 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 14 April, 1998 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers ISBN: 0375725784 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 13 February, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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