A Confederacy of Dunces
Pulitzer Prize
John Kennedy Toole
RG Bronze Medal 1999
22nd March 1999 at Max's House
Synopsis
A monument of sloth, rant and contempt, a behemoth of fat,
flatulence and furious suspicion of anything modern - this
is Ignatius J Reilly of New Orleans, noble crusader against
a world of dunces. In magnificent revolt against the twentieth
century, Ignatius propels his monstrous bulk among the flesh
posts of the fallen city, documenting life on his Big Chief
tablets as he goes, until his maroon-haired mother decrees
that Ignatius must work.
First lines
A green hunting cap squeezed the top of the fleshy
balloon of a head. The green earflaps, full oflarge ears and
uncut hair and the fine bristles that grew in the ears themselved,
stuck out on either side like turn signals indicating two
directions at once. Full, pursed lips protruded beneath the
bushy black moustache and, at their corners, sank into little
folds filled with disapproval and potato chip crumbs. In the
shadow under the green visor of the cap Ignatius J. Reilly's
supercilious blue and yellow yes looked down upon the other
people waiting under the clock at the D.H.Holmes department
store, studying the crowd of people for signs of bad taste
in dress. Several of the outfits, Ignatius noticed, were new
enough and expensive enough to be properly considered offenses
against taste and decency. Possession of anything new or expensive
only reflected a person's lack of theology and geometry; it
could even cast doubts upon one's soul.
Published reviews
A masterwork of comedy ... A dozen characters bounce off
each other, physically and verbally, through a plot of such
disarming inventiveness that it seems to generate itself effortlessly
... A pungent work of slapstick, satire and intellectual incongruities
... it is nothing less than a grand comic fugue.
The New York Times
Witty, exuberant and addictive, a mocking eulogy of life
in New Orleans by a modern Rabelais.
The Times
If a book's price is measured against the laughs it provokes,
A Confederacy of Dunces is the bargain of the year.
Time
The hero of John Kennedy Toole's incomparable comic classic
is one Ignatius J. Reilly, "huge, obese, fractious, fastidious,
a latter-day Gargantua, a Don Quixote of the French Quarter.
His story bursts with wholly original characters, denizens
of New Orleans' lower depths, incredible true-to-life dialogue,
and the zaniest series of high and low comic adventures."
--
Henry Kisor in the Chicago Sun-Times
An astonishingly good novel, radiant with intelligence and
artful high comedy.
Newsweek
A brilliant and evocative novel.
San Francisco Chronicle
A gem—one of the funniest books ever written.
New Republic
Our comments
A succession of comic adventures take Ignatius through New
Orleans and the sum of this book is less than its parts. The
characters are brilliantly drawn but poorly developed, changing
not at all, as they travel through the streets of New Orleans
and through the book. Undoubtedly funny, the book lacks the
plot to pull you along but remains memorable because of its
superb language and the images of this city and its people
that are conjured up.
|
|
