A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

ISBN: 0802130208 ISBN13: 978-0802130204
Pages: 405
Genre: Fiction, Comedy, Tragicomedy
Publisher: Grove Weidenfeld (Paperback, 1987)
Published: 1987, (Originally Published 1980)
Awards: Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 1981


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Page-Turner
Recommended
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Oh how I loved this book. Ignatius J. Reilly is one of the most loveable characters of any book I have read. This is more of a character driven book than a plot driven one, and it follows the exploits of Mr. Reilly. The best way to understand this book is to look at the characters, namely Ignatius.

Ignatius J. Reilly: The main character of this book, he is a large (read obese) character who has multiple college degrees but lacks any real common sense. He has a lot of book smarts but not a lot of street smarts. Throughout the novel he will drop numerous literary references. He is also extremely egotistical and selfish.

What makes Ignatius likeable is the fact that his character is what I call being "weighted on the ends". "Weighted on the ends" refers to having some sort of advantage or positive trait that is offset by a negative trait which opposes it. Ignatius is extremely smart, in terms of books and education, but he has very little clue how to handle human interaction.

Some of his "weighted ends" are:

Has:

• Book smarts
• Self-confidence
• Ego

Doesn't Have:

• Street smarts
• Social skills
• Modesty

Other Characters:

Myrna Minkoff: Former classmate of Ignatius from college. She is also very intelligent but possesses many of the traits that Ignatius does not. For example, she has much better social skills, is more modest, and has better street skills. We don't see a lot of Myrna until the later half of the novel, and most of her character is revealed from Ignatius as he continually converses with her through letters.

A point on these letters. This is a writing tool that I usually dislike. Reading the "letters within a book" always felt forced and unnecessary. However, the letters that Ignatius writes to Myrna are absolutely hilarious and absurd.

Irene Reilly: The poor mother of Ignatius. Ignatius still lives with her and is utterly dependent on her. At first Irene is presented as having a sort of co-dependency with Ignatuis but she gains some independence later on in the novel. Irene is your typical motherly figure who only wants the best for her child, and she is generally scared of any sorts of changes.

One refreshing point of her character is that while she utterly spoils Ignatius, she also presents a positive force on him throughout the novel. She begins to force Ignatius to be less dependent on her, which does a world of good for both of them.

Angelo Mancuso: The "aww I feel sorry for him" character in the book. He is a police officer who likes his job quite a bit. We first meet Angelo early on in the book when he "improperly" arrests Ignatius for making a scene in public. He is punished and forced to wear disguises to catch "suspicious characters" at the bus station toilets.

Burma Jones: The "world viewpoint" character of the book. He is forced to take a job paid "under the minimal wage" at a local bar "Night of Joy" to avoid being arrested for vagrancy. He is treated very poorly by the owner of the bar, who constantly threatens to report him if he doesn't follow her direct orders. This is one of the political statements that are threaded in the book displaying race issues in the southern United States at the time (early '60s).

Gus Levy: Owner of "Levy Pants". Levy Pants is a business completely inept at keeping up with the styles of the times. They are always creating pants that would have been popular many years ago and are always late to keep up. Gus is your typical rich business owner type. He spends very little time actually managing his company (which was left by his father and which Gus has little interest in actually running).

Gus spends most of his time being annoyed by his wife. His wife is your typical spoiled rich person wife who thinks she knows everything and deserves everything.

Miss Trixie:  A worker at the Levy Pants company. She.. appears to have an extrordinary amount of senility, but is not allowed to retire (ala Mrs. Levy who thinks that Miss Trixie would be better off if she kept working). Miss Trixie takes an immediate liking to Ignatius (although we wonder if she even knows where she is most of the time), and spends most of her day doing everything except working.

Mr. Gonzalez: The office manager at Levy Pants. Another "aww I feel sorry for him" character in the book. Mr. Gonzalez loves his job, and puts everything that he has into accomplishing what needs to be done to keep the offices of Levy Pants running smoothly. Unfortunately, he is the one who hired (or more got bullied into hiring) Ignatius. He quickly realizes this error, but feels powerless to do anything. What Mr. Gonzalez has in commitment to the company he lacks in being able to assert himself.

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There are a number of other minor characters in the book, but I wanted to just touch on some of the characters that I felt were more important. For the most part, Ignatius dominates much of the plot line of this book and many of the other characters are supporting roles to him.

One of the great reoccuring events in this book is the absurd and off the cuff rants that Ignatius goes on when he doesn't like something. In his rants (many of which he records down on notebooks because the world must have published copies of her wondrous ideas), he presents very intelligent points, but points which lack much common sense or realism.

I absolutely recommend this book. It isn't often that books will make me audibly laugh, but this one was able to do that.