A Confederacy of Dunces
Wed, 2004-04-14 09:14
#1
A Confederacy of Dunces
Yes, this is an actual book. I read this in about 1980 when first published. Evidently, as the story goes, the author committed suicide in 1970 because he couldn't find a publisher. His mother kept the book and eventually took it to a publisher and the rest is history. This is one of the funniest novels I've ever read, well worth a read.
BTW, the setting is New Orleans in the 1960s. New Orleans is in the American South, but that is an accident of geography. It's really located on another planet.
Fash and Chaps
A brilliant and original book.
Sim
The portrayal of Jones did amazing things for the black character in western novels too. Toole projects a genuine human being rather than some plasti-moulded 'nigger' that was becoming familiar to audiences. All the characters manage in some way to embedd themselves in your conscience. This was what caused problems with publishers, obnoxious, very extreme and unlikeable characters as well as the slow pace that the character study narrative unravels. There's the possibility of a film too.
Dylan Roberts
This book started my love affiar with words. I read it when I was about 14 or 15 and ever since I have been bent on becoming a writer......
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mandylifeboats
Far and away my favourite book! Love the scenes in the nightclub esp. with Jones in his shades and with his constant halo of smoke and the pole dancer and her parrot. The scenes in the offices of Levi Pant are magic. The mother and her boyfriend are good too, I could go on and on...
Tom Saunders
Brilliant book.
Peter Wild
Yay, far and away my favourite book in the world too . . . I now feel like less of a terrible misfit . . .
marc
Coming to the end of this and it really is wonderful. Does anyone know anything about this guy, apart from him very stupidly killing himself?
He seems to have taken parts from Tom Robbins and Richard Braughtigan and yet weighted the prose with a real bleakness that you don't get from the other writers, making him far better - in my opinion.
Ignatius Reilly is the orginal slacker. Perhaps the biggest arse ever to grace western literature. I can horribly see myself in him, which I bet many people do - see themselves, that is, not me - when they read the book because he's such a fantastic character.
The way Toole switches character perspectives so easily and effectively is outrageous.
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Pop Bach
Liked this
Tara
His other novel, The Neon Bible, was also good, if more conventional in some ways ... it doesn't surprise me that he couldn't find a publisher initially (too individual perhaps), but what a sad end for a unique talent.
Tony Cook
It's a wonderful book. I read it a couple of years agon on Justyn's reccommendation and I laughed for hours. It's also one of those books that stays with you for years. Give it a whirl - after buying it on amazon by clicking through from us!