John Kennedy Toole: A Confederacy Of Dunces

[Scratchy]

Anyone re-read this book lately? I did - and it held up incredibly well. This is a brilliant book. What a shame he committed suicide. Could have been one of the great writers of his generation.

I found the book quite enjoyable too, and would have liked to see other things by him as well. But as you said, what a shame...

Have to admit that I found Ignatius increasingly tiresome and infuriating as the book went on though; which is kind of the point, I suppose. Just glad that I don't know any real persons that resemble him or I don't know what I'd do to them.

Remember seeing this book being mentioned in another thread as being dark and disturbing (can't remember which). Disturbing? Yes. Dark? Definitely not. This book is like eating rancid sausages on a glorious sunny day at the park.

Which is a good thing.

Somehow.

 

[baddichter]

The book contains a lot of insiders jokes for natives of The Big Easy (as meself). But overall it's a good, if sluggish read. Two things I took away from it:
1) It needed a good editor
2) The weak do not survive or prosper in the writing world

 

[Love4OneAnother]

I thought it was fantastic. This story is really pushed by its charachters. Jones is hysterical-- he's so angry at everything, and its funny! Miss Trixie also gave me a laugh, along with the Levi's bickering and Ignatius' own huge, proud self.

I don't know.. I just though it was funny.

 

[Delta_doh!]

Anyone re-read this book lately? I did - and it held up incredibly well. This is a brilliant book. What a shame he committed suicide. Could have been one of the great writers of his generation.

Id never heard of it, So Thanks for that, now on my books to get list
Just reading 'The Bell Jar' ~Sylvia Plath she committed suicide not long after writing that.... Such a waste...

 

[Ya Krunk'd Floo]

It certainly starts off a little orf, but once you accept the world within the book, you're in for a treat. Ignatius G. Reilly is out of this world! As sad as a cold pancake, but as momentous as a galaxy.

I don't think there is one boring character in the whole book! I wonder if they've made a movie of it...Someone like Gilliam would be perfect...

 

[Mari]

From the first line, I could tell that this book was engaging and natural. The characters and situations are very broad, but the writing got me to settle into its world for the duration.

I know a lot of people who enjoyed reading it along the way, but didn't finish it. Once they got the main character, they didn't care that much about how the story would be resolved.

I happen to feel differently from some of the posters so far: I felt that the book wasn't sad, but redemptive. I don't want to include any spoilers, but I get that from the very end of the book. I could just feel the author's relief.

Confederacy is structured like an epic. Many characters are introduced; time is taken to get to know them; many episodes come and go; story threads and complications multiply; a lot has to happen to resolve them. It isn't a very long book, but by the end, I felt like I'd been through a long adventure.

 

[Kenny Shovel]

I read it a few years ago and seem to remember really enjoying it, in fact it’s one of the few books I’ve made a mental note to re-read. However I can see how it wouldn't be everyone’s cup of tea, definitely a book to divide opinion.

BTW, has anyone read Tooles other published work 'The Neon Bible'? It's very different, but still an impressive read, especially when you consider he wrote it when he was only sixteen.

 

[Mari]

Oh yes! The Neon Bible--I forgot to mention that.

I didn't find it as satisfying as Confederacy, which is a much more mature effort, of course. Neon Bible is also very grim. I got a lot out of it, however, as an artifact. I could see a lot of precursors to Confederacy--a lot of the same themes and desires.

 

[jbcohen]

I read it a very long time ago. Its one of those classics that I have never removed from my shelves.

 

[Ya Krunk'd Floo]

I happen to feel differently from some of the posters so far: I felt that the book wasn't sad, but redemptive. I don't want to include any spoilers, but I get that from the very end of the book. I could just feel the author's relief.

Surely a novel can be sad AND ultimately redemptive? I pitied Ignatius' sad diurnal existence, but I also delighted - much like he did - in his extraordinariness. Indeed, the conclusion is one of hope, but that doesn't contradict what has gone before.

 

[Ronny]

It certainly starts off a little orf, but once you accept the world within the book, you're in for a treat. Ignatius G. Reilly is out of this world! As sad as a cold pancake, but as momentous as a galaxy.

I don't think there is one boring character in the whole book! I wonder if they've made a movie of it...Someone like Gilliam would be perfect...

I heard that there's a movie being made but they have Will Farrell as Ignatious which I don't picture well.

This is one of my favorite books, I loved all the characters, especially Ignatious and the way he ranted on about everything and everyone. I agree Mari it was a bit like an epic, there are so many great characters and so much happens.

 

[Ya Krunk'd Floo]

I heard that there's a movie being made but they have Will Farrell as Ignatious which I don't picture well.

This is one of my favorite books, I loved all the characters, especially Ignatious and the way he ranted on about everything and everyone. I agree Mari it was a bit like an epic, there are so many great characters and so much happens.

I love Will Farrell in a special way, but perhaps he wouldn't bring the right level of melancholy to the role...I'd picture someone like a caucasian-Benicio Del Toro or a fat Steve Buscemi being perfect...

 

[Ronny]

See thats the thing, I have a certain picture of Ignatious in my head and I don't know an actor that fits it.

 

[Ya Krunk'd Floo]

See thats the thing, I have a certain picture of Ignatious in my head and I don't know an actor that fits it.

Smoke crack, get out of your head and then accept that a caucasian Del Toro is the way t'go...

 

[Ronny]

he's not fat enough, I just can't.

 

[Ya Krunk'd Floo]

He can do it...Have you seen 'Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas'?

 

[Ronny]

Of course but don't you think Ignatious is much fatter than that.

 

[Ice]

October 2006 Book of the Month:

Book Description from Amazon.co.uk

A monument to sloth, rant and contempt, and suspicious of anything modern - this is Ignatius J. Reilly of New Orleans, crusader against dunces. In revolt against the 20th century, Ignatius propels his bulk among the flesh-pots of a fallen city, documenting life on his Big Chief tablets as he goes, until his mother decrees that Ignatius must work.

 

[SFG75]

The foreward to this book is not to be overlooked. Percy Walker lays out a scene that must be played out thousands of times over day. A lady walks in, says her son's work is a masterpiece and asks the professor to read it. I like Walker's statement about how the book hooked him.

In this case I read on. And on. First with the sinking feeling that it was not bad enough to quit, then witha prickle of interest, then a growing excitmenet, an finally an incredulity: surely it was not possible that it was so good. I shall resist the temptation to say what first made me gape, grin, laugh out loud, shake my head in wonderment. better let the reader make the discovery on his own.

Before this portion is how she keeps nagging him to read the darn thing and he eventually relents. The wikipedia selection on the author is very sad. The mother was very domineering and appears to be the only woman in his life. She must have been accurate about his intelligence as he graduated from Tulane and Columbia. He also enjoyed some teaching stints in Louisiania and New York, so he did show some promise. The author's depression over the book not being published and the fact that his mother destroyed the suicide note, leaves a lot to ponder and I'll try to hold back judgment and refuse to unleash my inner-Freudian analyst to assess the situation at the present time.

 

[SFG75]

I have read the first two chapters and I'm very impressed with character development in relation to Ignatius. I hate to say it, but I actually know someone like Ignatius. I believe that Ignatius does display some intense narcissistic tendencies and is incredibly selfish. I've never ceased to be amazed by people who look down upon others, but who aren't doing so hot themselves. This over-arching moral superiority comes out most clearly in this amusing line:

This city is famous for its gamblers, prostitutes, exhibitionists, anti-Christs, alcoholics, sodomites, drug addicts, fetishists, onantists, pornogrpahers, frauds, jades, litterbugs, lesbians, all of whom are only too well protected by graft.

Certainly, what people need is more theology and geometry.

The mother is somewhat of a mixed figure. You do feel somewhat bad for her in that she has to drive everywhere and spends money on her boy. Then again, she is probably one who wants to keep "her boy" exactly that. the beginning where officer Mancuso accosts Ignatius really points this out. Not only did she buy into it, but he did as well by referring to himself as a boy and in turn, having his fellow shoppers asking the officer to

leave the boy alone.

(page 2)

Chapter 2 is truly a riot-I especially enjoyed how in being turned down for a job, Ignatius just had to point out the flaws as to why he wouldn't want to work for the given employer even if he were hired:

That office was improperly heated. I don't know how the employees of that company manage to stay alive exposing themselves to that chill day after day. And then there are those florescent tubes baking their brains out and blinding them. I did not like the office at all. I triedto explain the inadquacies of the place to the personnel manager, but he seemed rather uninjterested. He was ultimately very hostile.

Once again, Ignatius's intensely selfish nature comes on through. Even the priest weighing in on Ignatius needing to get a job leaves us with Ignatius commenting on how he can't support the church now and that his mother should have received the lash for interrupting his five year enterprise of book writing.

This book is so rich in humor and definitely shows the differences in characters, especially when it relates to Ignatius. His mother is a more plain-spoken person, while Ignatius is one prone to grandiose speech. Jones's speech is all the more interesting as well as he gains employment as a sweeper in a seedy establishment.

Still reading more-on to chapter 3.