A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

 

Amongst all of the other reading that Melanie has been doing lately, she has decided to try to read some of the classics that evaded her (and often myself, as well) over the years and so she picked up this novel on a whim. She was not particularly enthralled with the writing or the story telling but I thought I'd see what I thought of it.

Although I have been familiar with the title, I didn't know the tale behind the book - it was published in 1980, 11 years after Toole's death, through the efforts of writer Walter Percy along with Toole's mother, and first became a cult classic and then a mainstream success, even winning a posthumous Pulitzer! 

Written in 1963 and set in New Orleans (a fave city of ours, so that was intriguing), it features a main character who could not even be described as an anti-hero, as he has absolutely no likable characteristics. Ignatius J. Reilly is grotesque to the point of parody, obscene, overweight, slothful to an extreme, unemployed, living with his mother who supports him, a poor dresser, rude to everyone, but educated enough to believe that he is better than everyone else. Dire straits require employment, which sets off a series of unlikely events.

Finding employment is not an issue in the city at this time, but Ignatius' character prevents him from retaining his positions or even earning any money to speak of. But, while out in the French Quarter he comes upon a gay man he had met previously in a bar (the scenarios and coincidences are absurd to the extreme) and actually has an entertaining conversation that concludes with Ignatius planning a homosexual political party that will bring about world peace! Compared to some of the escapades recounted within, this practically makes sense! There are many more characters that come in contact with Ignatius and somehow Toole makes their stories all intertwine in the end, sometimes in the most unlikely of ways, and the tale ends with all of the strands coming to somewhat of a conclusion, and even a somewhat happy ending.

It's a strange one with plenty of overt stereotypes - again, sometimes in the extreme - and lots of prejudices within the characters, but that was kind of a sign of the times back in the early 60's. Can't say that I would recommend this one, mostly due to the unlikability and unrelatability of anyone in the story. It's not particularly bad writing, but it is not the hilarious tale that some reviewers have recounted and both of us got to the point where we just wanted it to end.