Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of A Confederacy of Dunces

A Confederacy of Dunces
reviewed on + 273 more book reviews


I tried reading this book twice, thinking perhaps the first time my mind just wasn't accepting the foolishness of Toole's words. Then it showed up on the Great American Read list, so I thought I'd give it another try, perhaps I missed something the first time. I truly don't see what the big fuss was all about, except for the unusual way in which it ended up getting published.
Second attempt I read to page 125, with an enormous amount of effort on my part. The story is so self-indulgent, annoying, immature that I just couldn't waste any more of my time. Still not sure how it ended up on GAR list. And definitely don't understand how it won a Pulitzer Prize!