A weird and wonderful book. Truly, I've never read anything like it. This novel has some of the crispest, most well-painted characters I've ever read, and although I wasn't "laughing out loud" as much as the reviewers on the back cover promised, it is definitely funny as hell, and a completely cringe-worthy story. The character of Ignatius Reilly will haunt me. We all know people like this -- the over-educated, miserable, socially dysfunctional outcast who is so cut off from the world that he manages see everyone else through some sick, distorted prism in which he is only sane person, and everyone else is simply beneath him. In this case, the character also weighs 300 pounds, and alternates between selling hotdogs, screaming at his mother, and lying around on stained, mildewy sheets as he writes his manifesto besmirching the modern world. Wow. The real sadness is the story of the author, who wrote this book and never showed it to a soul before committing suicide when he was 32. His mom discovered it, and later gave it to an English professor who got it published. In 1980, it won the Pulitzer. Poor guy. I'm very curious about how close this book was to his own life, as you could not draft these characters without some very specific models.

I wouldn't recommend this book to just anyone, but if you have a sense of humor and an appreciation for New Orleans culture, crazy characters, or super-dorks, you may love it. I am definitely glad I read it.

My mentality, uncontrollable and wanton as always, whispered to me a scheme so magnificent and daring that I shrank from the very thought of what I was hearing. "Stop!" I cried imploringly to my god-like mind. "This is madness." But still I listened to the counsel of my brain. It was offering me the opportunity to Save the World Through Degeneracy.
…
For Christmas, Mrs. Levy always compiled not a gift list but rather a list of the injustices and brutalities she had suffered since August. The girls got this list in their stockings. The only gift Mrs. Levy asked of the girls was that they attack their father. Mrs. Levy loved Christmas.

A Confederacy of Dunces was written by John Kennedy Toole in the early 1960s when he was still in his 20s. Mr. Toole committed suicide at the age of 32, never having seen his book published. His mother found the manuscript years later, sent it around, found someone willing to publish it in 1980, and the novel won the Pulitzer Prize in 1981. It is an objectively fascinating, tragic backstory for a novel.

And reading A Confederacy of Dunces one cannot help but wonder what Mr. Toole would have done with his talents if he had survived another 5, 10, or 50 years. Because he clearly had talent. This book is pure literary fiction. It’s structurally interesting, bringing the cast of characters together in differing combinations, blending the live action with written accounts. It is absurd, and funny in places. In several ways, this novel reminded me of one of my favorite books,  The Bonfire of the Vanities.

But all that said, A Confederacy of Dunces is just not an entertaining book. It’s main character, Ignatius J. Reilly, is a repulsive character. He’s 30 years old and isn’t just living with his mother, he’s taking advantage of her and actively making her miserable. Ignatius has been unemployed for years, despite having a master’s degree, because he’s only been on one job interview. He fancies himself as writing brilliant papers and observations on history, society, etc., but even that he does in a lazy, unproductive manner. Ignatius is—and I’m being reserved here—a judgmental, opinionated, blustering loudmouth. He talks like an arrogant, angry thesaurus, and his disinterest in sex might be the only interesting thing about him. If he’d been around in 2021, Ignatius would absolutely be a belligerent anti-vaxxer who would want to tell you all about the “research” he’d done on Facebook.

A Confederacy of Dunces is further undermined by some awful stereotyping. While the Forward assures the reader that the novel does not present its black characters as minstrels, I respectfully disagree. Racial stereotypes and slurs abound in this story. You can’t claim Ignatius is a heroic, or at least roguish, character and then have him describe his trip to a factory full of black employees as being like the journey of Colonel Kurtz in  Heart of Darkness. But what’s truly telling is that the Forward didn’t even think it worth addressing the stereotypes and slurs used against the gay characters in the story.

On one level, I can’t believe a book so flawed won the 1981 Pulitzer Prize. But then I think about 1981, with the then-popular demonization of so-called “welfare queens,” and the utter disregard for the then-growing AIDS crisis, and I can totally believe a book as precisely flawed as A Confederacy of Dunces won the 1981 Pulitzer Prize. Read at your own risk.

I know I'm out on my own on this one, but I detest this book. I really think it glorifies whining to an extent never before seen in the human condition. Everyone I know loves this book, and I know I am in a minority here. But Christ... That this book is so popular with people in my age bracket and not so popular with people older or younger really makes me wonder if it is part of the problem or a reflection of the boring, whiny apathy of my generation. But if this book has any redeemable aspects at all, it is that it highlights just how lazy and worthless my generation is. It's reflected in the reverence people my age give this book, a book whose central lesson seems to be "whining is funny, and doing things is bad". For dark, astounding irony about inaction and the parodoxes of a corrupt society, read Catch-22 or some of the more comical writers of astroyphysics tomes. Confederacy of Dunces is the Forrest Gump of literature and I'd like to never have another conversation about this book as long as I live.

NC

After hearing dozens of great things about 'A Confederacy of Dunces,' I figured I had to read it. And upon my third attempt at reading it, I did finish it. And I realized that I did not like it at all. There are a handful of humorous pages, but you have to suffer through 70 pages of tripe per one page of decency. Don't let the Pulitzer fool you. The only reason this novel was published was because the author killed himself because he couldn't publish it, and then his mother repeatedly sent it to the same publisher over and over until he broke and finally put it in print. This is a mercy publishing.

“...I mingle with my peers or no one, and since I have no peers, I mingle with no one.”



From its crazy beginning and incredible cast of characters to an ending that is something like riding triumphantly off into the sunset, but clearly isn't, John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces is amazing! I've had this novel on my to-read pile for a long time, and am very happy to have finally read it. But even so, what exactly is it? A scathing indictment of society? A portrait of genius? Or is it simply a comedy? I will read this again, but probably will not come to a definitive answer.

“I am at the moment writing a lengthy indictment against our century. When my brain begins to reel from my literary labors, I make an occasional cheese dip”

“My mother is currently associating with some undesirables who are attempting to transform her into an athlete of sorts, deprave specimens of mankind who regularly bowl their way to oblivion.”

صد صفحه ی اول خیلی خوب پیش رفت. هم با ایگنیشس ارتباط برقرار کردم و هم طنزش رو دوست داشتم ولی بعد متلاشی شد کلا:)) خیلی کند و خسته کننده پیش رفت جوری که فقط دوست داشتم تموم شه!
برای بعضی سلیقه ها می تونه خیلی جذاب باشه ولی روی هم رفته کتاب خوش خوانی نبود.

کتابیه که می‌شه درباره محتواش ساعت‌ها حرف زد، ولی کشش داستانی زیادی نداره و اتفاقا برخلاف نظر خیلی‌ها، به عقیده من اوایل کتاب کشش بیشتری داشت و صد صفحه آخر زیاد جالب نبود و حتی یه جاهایی لوس بود. در کل کتابی نیست که خوندنش رو به کسی توصیه کنم، ولی در عین حال به اینم فکر می‌کنم که چرا از کتابی که از نظر خیلی از منتقدین برجسته کتاب خوبیه، خوشم نیومده؟ آیا عدم همذات‌پنداری با آدمی که مثل من فکر و زندگی نمی‌کنه و جهان رو متفاوت از من می‌بینه، می‌تونه دلیل این موضوع باشه؟! اگه این باشه، زیاد خوشایند نیست. شاید یکی از رسالت‌های ادبیات فراخ کردن همین حس همذات‌پنداریمون باشه و باید برای رسیدن بهش تلاش کنیم.

The 1981 Pulitzer prize winner, a comedy/farce… not my type of humour, didn't make me laugh once. I found the humour juvenile. It was a recommendation of a good friend, but this book was really difficult to wade through, and I am personally shocked that this is loved by so many and seen as a modern classic! A Two Star 2 out of 12, because of its status, otherwise I would have given it a No Star, 0 out of 12.

2010 read

با درود و تبریک به آن مدیر انتشاراتی که کتاب اتحادیه ابلهان را خواند و از نشر آن سر باز زد و باعث شد نویسنده خودکشی کند.

یکی از پر حرف ترین کتابهایی که خوانده بودم. حرفهای بی سر و ته که انگار فقط و فقط برای پر کردن صفحات کتاب بیان شده.
یک تعداد شخصیتها در کتاب هستند که به صورت نامنظم و بی قاعده با هم روبرو میشوند و شروع میکنند به حرف زدن. اتفاقات داستانی کمی می افتد.
حتا دیالوگها که بخش عمده کتاب را در بر گرفته هم چیز زیادی به دست نمیدهد. جر و بحث های تکراری که کار را شبیه سریالهای طنز دسته سوم تلویزیونی ایرانی کرده. در انتها همان حرفهای همیشگی: اعتراض به نظام سرمایه داری آمریکا، بیانیه ای علیه لیبرالیسم غرب و مزخرفات دیگر.

دسته بندی نا نوشته ای در دنیای کتاب خوانی‌ام شکل گرفته با این عنوان که "به چه شخصیتی بیشتر دوست دارم اردنگی بزنم" . در این دسته بندی شخصیت اصلی این کتاب، ایگنیشس، رقابت سر سختی با هولدن کالفیلدِ ناتور دشت داشت. چقدر دوست داشتم اونقدر به دل و روده ایگنیشس مشت بکوبم که تا چیزی جز بیفتک گندیده داخل بدنش باقی نمونه و از شر آروغ های همیشگیش خلاص بشه.

What a blast. Laughs aplenty. Superbly quotable

Ignatius J Reilly is one of the great literary creations. Indeed, A Confederacy of Dunces abounds with maravellous characters, all of whom are, in some way, sucked into the orbit of Ignatius and his lunatic behaviour.

There are some remarkable comedic set pieces here however the real joy lies in the writing and the dialogue from, most especially, Ignatius who disdains many aspects of modernity and spends his life expressing outrage in the most amusing and unforgettable terms.

In addition to the fabulous characters, wonderful writing and guffaw inducing dialogue, the book's setting - New Orleans - is also powerfully evoked.

I tried to read this decades ago and now find it inexplicable that I gave up after about 20 pages. If you've yet to read it then I envy you, it's a treat.

5/5

در یک فرصت مناسب در موردش مینویسم!

خیلی به خودم افتخار میکنم که تونستم این کتاب رو تموم کنم.

با تموم شخصیت هایی که حالم رو بهم میزدن و هرلحظه به خودم فوش میدادم که چرا اصلا کتاب رو شروع کردم!

متاسفانه کتاب رو نصفه هم نمیتونم ول کنم!