Confederacy of Dunces - Kennedy Toole

[Kristel]

read in 2010; Written by John Kennedy Toole, set in New Orleans. This is a story set in New Orleans and features a son and his mother. It was published several years after the author's suicide. The book's title refers to an epigram from Jonathan Swift's essay, Thoughts on Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting: "When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him." The main character, Ignatius J. Reilly, is an educated but lazy 30-year-old man living with his mother in New Orleans. This is a quest with Ignatius looking for employment and the various adventures he has as he travels about New Orleans.

[Pamela]

Brilliant in its total craziness, a picaresque novel taken to the extreme. Ignatius J. Reilly is an unforgettable protagonist, from his bizarre physical appearance to his unpredictable reactions to everything around him. The most memorable scenes involve him, particularly his time working at Levy Pants, but I enjoyed all the other plots and characters too, and the way it all came together was genius. Many of the scenes have a great visual impact, and the dialogue is sharp and clever. Loved following Ignatius around New Orleans, and loved this maddening effervescent novel.

[Amanda]

It's a fascinating book, that's for sure. Ignatius is such a memorable character: formally educated but with an extreme failure to launch, and ideas that come from education but not practical wisdom (thinking Boethius and divine right of kings is still relevant praxus), and neuroses and eccentricities in spades.

His misadventures in working as a hot dog man, infiltrating a strip club, trying to get Levy pants workers to organize (but not in a functional way, more in a paternalistic theological way), and trying to make flamboyant gay people a political weapon as just hilarious. Particularly the last one: his idea of a "pervert squadron" that could help solve foreign conflict because gays are more loyal to each other than country barriers was so funny and misguided, particularly in how he is kind of homophobic and yet believes they can be weaponized for political good. The whole scene where he organizes the local gay community thinking he's unleashing his manifesto but they turn it into a dance party once they decide he is 'a flop' was great.

There actually turns out to be some good commentary on the ridiculousness of the red scare, American puritanism, and anti-black racism running throughout zany book.

I also love his belligerent romance with Myrna, his political and philosophical opposite who is also just like him in the neuroses, lack of practical wisdom and ridiculous ideas, and sense of underserved self importance/inability to make a real impact. She's a communist free love type who seems to originally come from privilege in NYC and falls for grifters claiming to be black liberationists or Israeli radicals, and gets very 'white saviory' about thinking her folk songs will save the black community (whether they want them or not), she thinks sex solves everything. They make up this left vs right wing toxic relationship of out of touch delusional people. It's honestly a joy to read.

I gave it 4 stars.

[Pip]

I have no idea which book I thought this was when I chose it this month. I thought it was political commentary from the sixties. Instead I was introduced to Ignatius Reilly and his maroon haired mother in a madcap, clever, erudite and completely bonkers story of a nonfunctioning 30 year old with issues of indigestion and personal responsibility. I have read that some have found it laugh out loud funny, while others have been utterly repelled. I found it amusing in a slapstick way - not my favourite form of humour. I could only read so much at a time, it was so grotesquely fascinating. Toole satirised so much Americana in one novel! Every character was a caricature of some of the worst traits in human nature: greed, ignorance, self importance and gluttony. Absolutely worth reading.