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Search - A Confederacy of Dunces
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A Confederacy of Dunces Author: |
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Book Information
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Other Versions of this Book: Audio Cassette (Unabridged), Audio Cassette (Abridged), Paperback, Paperback
Book Description:
It is a great pity that John Kennedy Toole is not alive and well and writing. But he is not, and there is nothing we can do about it but make sure that this gargantuan tumultuous human tragi-comedy is at least made available to a world of readers." --Walker Percy
When Walker Percy penned these prophetic words in his foreword to the first edition of A Confederacy of Dunces, he could not have known just how wide Toole's "world of readers" would become. Released by Louisiana State University Press in April 1980, A Confederacy of Dunces is nothing short of a publishing phenomenon. Turned down by countless publishers and submitted by the author's mother years after his suicide, the book won the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Today, there are over 1,500,000 copies in print worldwide in eighteen languages.
Toole's lunatic and sage novel introduces one of the most memorable characters in American literature, Ignatius Reilly, whom Percy dubs "slob extraordinary, a mad Oliver Hardy, a fat Don Quixote, a perverse Thomas Aquinas rolled into one -- who is in violent revolt against the entire modern age." Ignatius' ire explodes when his mother backs her car into another automobile. The owner of the damaged vehicle insists on payment; Mrs. Reilly demands that her son cease watching television and writing in his Big Chief tablet and get a job.
Set in New Orleans, A Confederacy of Dunces outswifts Swift, one of whose essays gives the book its title. As its characters burst into life, they leave the region and literature forever changed by their presences--Ignatius and his mother; Miss Trixie, the octogenarian assistant accountant at Levy Pants; inept wan Patrolman Mancuso; Darlene, the Bourbon Street stripper with a penchant for poultry; Jones, the jivecat in space-age dark glasses. Satire and farce animate A Confederacy of Dunces; tragic awareness ennobles it.
When Walker Percy penned these prophetic words in his foreword to the first edition of A Confederacy of Dunces, he could not have known just how wide Toole's "world of readers" would become. Released by Louisiana State University Press in April 1980, A Confederacy of Dunces is nothing short of a publishing phenomenon. Turned down by countless publishers and submitted by the author's mother years after his suicide, the book won the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Today, there are over 1,500,000 copies in print worldwide in eighteen languages.
Toole's lunatic and sage novel introduces one of the most memorable characters in American literature, Ignatius Reilly, whom Percy dubs "slob extraordinary, a mad Oliver Hardy, a fat Don Quixote, a perverse Thomas Aquinas rolled into one -- who is in violent revolt against the entire modern age." Ignatius' ire explodes when his mother backs her car into another automobile. The owner of the damaged vehicle insists on payment; Mrs. Reilly demands that her son cease watching television and writing in his Big Chief tablet and get a job.
Set in New Orleans, A Confederacy of Dunces outswifts Swift, one of whose essays gives the book its title. As its characters burst into life, they leave the region and literature forever changed by their presences--Ignatius and his mother; Miss Trixie, the octogenarian assistant accountant at Levy Pants; inept wan Patrolman Mancuso; Darlene, the Bourbon Street stripper with a penchant for poultry; Jones, the jivecat in space-age dark glasses. Satire and farce animate A Confederacy of Dunces; tragic awareness ennobles it.
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Please Rate these Book Reviews
Amy B. (I have found that readers of this book fall into one of two categories: you love it or you hate it. Most of my book club hated it. I loved it.
The main character, Ignatius J. Reilly, is a haughty, self-centered, self-seeking, self-proclaimed genius who lives with his mother. There is absolutely nothing redeeming about his character, so don't expect him to stumble across any epiphanies or enlightenment. And yet in spite of everything unlikeable about him, he still makes for very interesting and entertaining reading. Most readers probably won't be able to identify with him. I could not, but that didn't make his story any less appealing.
The story is set in New Orleans and I think that John Kennedy Toole did a really wonderful job of capturing the essence and attitude that is New Orleans.
Once finishing the book, you might ask yourself, "What was the point?" It's not that the book doesn't go anywhere or that the story doesn't progress... I see this book more as a snapshot of a certain time in Ignatus's life and because of that there is no hard and fast conclusion. Perhaps that is why some people are left a little disappointed. The book simply ends, and Ignatius remains Ignatius. But the time you get to spend inside of the fairly off-center mind of Ignatius makes the semi- anticlimactic ending worth it because it's quite the ride in getting there.
In all I found the story to be entertaining and quirky in a way that was refreshing and even a little unique. If you approach this book with the attitude that you won't learn anything useful (and neither do the characters, really) then you shouldn't be disappointed.
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