Customer Reviews

Confederacy of Dunces (Penguin Modern Classics)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I've read this masterpiece many times since it was published and, each time, I laugh out loud as if I were reading it for the first time. The characters are sterling, the plotting flawless and the writing witty. From its first description of Ignatius waiting for his momma outside the D.H. Holmes store to its conclusion--every loose end tied into as thick a braid as Ms. Minkoff's hair--this book is a priceless treasure.

I'm re-reading this novel for the second time. A Confederacy of Dunces reeks with irony, not in the least because the author, John Kennedy Toole, took his own life in part because of his inability to get the boook published. The irony was that his mother persevered in showing his manuscript and the book was published and won a Pulitzer Prize. The book really is extremely funny. Toole had a fabulous ear for dialogue; he perfectly captures the way people in New Orleans spoke in the early 1960s. At that time most of the people of Lousiana had a language that was unique. Here's an excellent argument against suicide-you honestly never know. Toole's suicide silenced his voice and denied us whatever other novels he might have produced. I'm grateful that we've got this one, but it's hard not to feel cheated. Anyway, anyone who's never read this book should grab it; it is a genuine classic. People will be reading this novel for a long time.

I just bought this book for my college aged nephew for Christmas. I first read the book back in the eighties. Since that time I have passed it on, in one form or another, to dozens of people. All have enjoyed it immensely. My wife and I play a running game when we're out in public. We'll spot someone who is Myrna Minkoff, Santa Battaglia, or Ignatius. We are constantly patrolling for "suspicious characters." What an absolute hoot. If you have ever lived in or around New Orleans, it is even better.

I do not have the vocabulary to adequately tell you what this book is about but I will try. It is about a man who is educated way, way beyond his intelligence. He is useless, worthless and a complete moron. I never laughed so hard in my life. The situations he gets himself into from a hotdog vendor, to office worker, to trying to start a uprising in a factory, this man is useless.

Have a dictionary nearby. For once, you have a book that isn't written at the 5th grade level.

I AM CURRENTLY FINISHING UP MY FOURTH READING OF CONFEDERACY. I LOVE TO GET INTO EACH CHARACTER WHEN READING IT TO MY WIFE. I HAVE NEVER LAUGHED HARDER WHEN READING ANY BOOK. IT ONLY GETS BETTER EACH TIME. I WOULD LOVE TO SEE IT ON FILM, BUT I CAN SEE IT PLAYING IN MY HEAD EACH TIME. AWESOME.IF YOU HAVE NOT READ IT, YOU MUST.

I have just re-read this for the umpteenth time. What a corker! It is amazing that the same character treatments--of Jones and of the various gay characters--that kept this "Modern Classic" from publication in its author's lifetime may well have also kept it from pubication (on Madison Avenue, anyway)in our time, for politically correct reasons. If you have not read it, do so soon--and then put it away for a fresh re-reading the next year, and the year after that, and the year after that, and ... you get the idea; I doubt that any book outside the Bible will be reread more than this will. It remains fresh every time!

Tales As Tall As A Sunflower

I've loved this book for Decades. It is truly an original and a favorite of many.
Everyone should have the pleasure of reading this book. It is funny on levels
you may never have considered funny; the humor is of a type both outrageous
and familiar somehow as self deprecating. There are many reviews already written
about this book and the author, John Kennedy Toole, but I bought and prize this
particular copy because it was published in London and has different cover art.

I was surprised this won a Pulitzer. All of the main characters are repugnant & lame. I was rooting against them all, except in the last part when I was rooting for the lesser of the evils.

Arte Johnson has the dialects and characterizations of this hilarious novel down pat. I was leery of having any actor put his vocal stamp on the denizens of "A Confederacy," but I was happily proved wrong. Johnson's vocal rendition has me laughing out loud, as much as reading the novel itself. The only shame is Johnson seems to have recorded only an abridged version; I wish he'd dramatized the novel word for word. As it stands, this audiobook is a great companion to the printed word.

I read this a few years ago and had hoped to buy a Kindle version with intent of reading it again. Too bad it is not available in Kindle format, yet. This book is wonderful from start to finish. How it has managed to generate so few reviews is quite beyond me as numerous works of rather mediocre fiction have somehow acquired hundreds of comments.

When a book has "Winner of the Pulizer Prize" emblazoned on the cover, you can be sure it is a great read. Read this book! Oh and click that little link to request the publisher format and sell it for Kindle owners, so I can read it again.