A Confederacy of Dunces (Evergreen Book)

I found myself not caring about the main character and I didn't find the musings very entertaining.

A Confederacy of Dunces may be the funniest novel I've ever read. The only competition that I can think of (The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth, Cat's Cradle by Vonnegut, or The Crying of Lot 49 by Pynchon) pale in comparison. At the novel's heart is the grossly overweight, highly opinionated and deliriously deluded Ignatius J. Reilly. You will not find a more unique and hilarious character in all of literature. Thoroughly sickened by the lack of medieval values in the post-Enlightenment world, Ignatius is determined to live out his life in the comforting cloister of his mother's home, spending his days scribbling an elaborate protest against the modern world. That is, until a bizarre series of circumstances forces him out into the world where he must use his Masters-degree education to, gasp, finally get a job!

As the story progresses (and the plot becomes more and more wildly improbable), a number of gut-busting hilarious scenes ensue. Stand-outs for me were Ignatius' "Crusade for Moorish Dignity" complete with an impromptu jazz dance among bewildered factory workers, his disgraceful job as a pirate hot dog vendor (complete with the tantalizing advertisement "Twelve (12) inches of Paradise"), and his short-lived obsession with a Boethius-reading pornographer. Among Ignatius' more memorable quotes are lines like "Everyone has a valve!" and "Oh Fortuna, you degenerate wanton!"

What keeps Confederacy from being perfect is the elaborate cast of side characters, some wickedly funny, others dreadfully obnoxious, that interrupt the tale of Ignatius' exile in the outside world. While characters like Patrolman Mancuso and Burma Jones are likable and funny, they are given a few too many pages and not quite enough to do. At times, during the middle section of the novel, it feels like the events aren't really progressing anywhere. But be patient: the incredible payoff of the ending (which neatly ties up just about every random plot string from earlier chapters) is hilarious, heart-warming, and more than worth the journey.

As the title for this review suggests, Confederacy of Dunces has some HST similarities. This book is a wild and fun ride; interesting and unexpected twists, with sharp dialog. Apart from the entertainment value is the amazement at the creative mind that spun this tale. It is truly a work of comedic genius.

What a book, what a masterpiece! A comedy, the likes of which I've never read, with characters so unbelievable real I had to occasional take breaks from reading it.

The prose surprised me again and again with such beauty, wit and genius. From the first page, I was held in thrall to Toole's talent: "Full, pursed lips protruded beneath the bushy black moustache and, at their corners, sank into little folds filled with disapproval and potato chip crumbs."

The everyday mundane, sometimes disgusting, bits of the lives of these people combined with Toole's writing is just incredible. It makes for such an unforgettable experience.

Toole has his some of characters talk his local dialect, which in many books, is so confusing, so difficult to read or to decipher. He makes it work. No, not work, he makes it seamless, perfect, brilliant. I'm not reading their words--I can hear them talking. It's beautiful.

The story centers around Ignatius J. Reilly, as does everything if he can make it, an overweight, over-educated, overly demanding man living with his Mamma, holed up in his bedroom, drinking Dr. Nut and scribbling about Medieval history and the problems of today. This has gone on for many years, and would continue for many more except for a family emergency which pushes his Mamma to take the unusual step of standing up to Ignatius and telling him he must get a job. His world is shaken, he is spiraling out of control, Fortuna has spun against him.

And thus, with much GI troubles and vitriolic ranting and railing against peoples in general and particular, Ignatius goes out into the world for the second time since college. The omnipotent reader is privy to both the actual facts and often, Ignatius's more flattering description of events as he writes about it later, with the view of future publication, in a Big Chief tablet in his room.

There were times I didn't laugh, though, but that was when I saw myself in this gargantuan idealistic slob, this over-educated moron trying to impose his world views on all around him. That's when, instead of laughing, I gave an inwardly embarrassed chuckle and moved on quickly.

There's an underlying element of sadness to the novel, to me anyway. Is it knowing this is Toole's only novel and there'll be nothing else to read? Is it knowing that he committed suicide, and feeling that sadness seep into the pages? Or is it simply knowing that Ignatius is destined to bumble every attempt at every thing merely because Fortuna has it out for his overwhelming conceit? I think it's a mix of all three, and this melancholy tempers the outright hilarity, balancing it, making it even more thought-provoking.

Other residents of New Orleans find their paths crossed with Ignatius, usually to their dismay, and always find their lives changed in some way as a result. The vagrant, the man afraid of the "comuniss", the girl wanting to be an exotic dancer, and many more. . . One reads about them again and again and wonders, how will they all come together? Trust Toole, he's a genius--the plot themes and characters come together like orchestral themes resulting in a crescendoing finale of stunning proportions, and then stream off again, a solo here, a duet there, until the final page. I was genuinely worried at some points, as to how the book would end, how Toole would leave Ignatius. Never fear, dear reader, as Ignatius himself might have said. It's a masterpiece through and through.

I really adore this book. It has some of the best written sentences for humor I have ever been exposed to. Any book that says "Canned food is a perversion and ultimately detrimental to the soul" or "my pre-disposition to morbidity" is okay with me. The main character's diction was enough to make me chuckle and laugh several times through out the entire book. Not to mention the zany situations he puts himself in and how the rest of the characters interact with him.

I felt that all of the cast was fun and connected to the story seamlessly. I was wondering how all of these odd-balls would congeal to create a well-paced story, but the author definitely delivered on that. The supporting cast was equally as crazy and provided a change of pace the complimented the main character Ignatius. Whether it was Jones who never took of his sunglasses or Gloria/Trixie mistress of commerce helping out with the job, this book ways always cracking me up

The characters are crazy. The vocabulary used is crazy. Hell, this book is crazy. But it held itself together and created the most comedic experience I've had with a book before.