Review- A confederacy of dunces

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


There are few books that I can remember making me laugh aloud. Perhaps because reading is a solitary occupation, and laughter is social, I often don't laugh even when finding a book very funny. That was not the case with a confederacy of dunces.

The protagonist, who entirely dominates the narrative, is Ignatius J Reilly. He is an intellectual of the most abstract, disreputable type, obsessed with medieval philosophy, who purports to despise the modern world and all its comforts, criticizing everything around him in baroque language that no one he talks to understands. His attitude is pure posturing, as in reality, he loves the comforts of the modern world, with its junk food and warm houses. Like many people who are routinely disgusted, Ignatius appears to enjoy disgust, regularly going to the cinema purely to point out how repulsed he is by the films being shown.

In many ways, Ignatius is grotesque. He is entirely selfish, living off his mother, who he treats badly, is obsessed by pornography while constantly disclaiming it, he is dirty and obese. However, aside from the humour of his rants, Ignatius' absolute inadequacy makes him in some ways sympathetic. When his mother forces him to apply to jobs, absurdity follows absurdity. When a policeman attempts to arrest him, Ignatius responds with a declamation against the world, demanding to know why the policeman is not dealing with the city's 'fetishists and onanists'. It is skillful writing to make such an unappealing character not entirely dislikable.

In their own ways, the other main characters are equally as colourful and exaggerated. Lana Lee runs a sleazy bar/strip club that forms part of many of Ignatius' adventures. She is so mean that she waters down all the drinks. Ignatius' sometime friend/kind of girlfriend, Myrna, thinks that all social problem are caused by lack of sex. She constantly advises Ignatius to read articles she finds in journals before changing her mind when realizing that they were written by nazis.

The vividness of the characterization is matched by the vividness of the setting, with New Orleans depicted as having a bustling street life, filled with rundown factories, underground gay clubs, and bumbling 'undercover' policeman who are instantly spotted by the residents. There is an affection in the descriptions that sits curiously with the squalid poverty that forms the background of the book. Many of the characters struggle to get enough money to live, and having a job that pays below the minimum wage is a recurring theme.

Read this book. It is one that will generate opinions.



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