BOOK REVIEW: A Confederacy of Dunces #bookreview #confederacyofdunces
Author: John Kennedy Toole
Review by Guest Writer
The story takes place in the early 1960s and revolves around the actions of 30-year-old delusional Ignatius J. Reilly, an anti-hero protagonist, obese, flatulent, educated but going nowhere, living with his mother in a New Orleans slum where he grew up. Many of his misfortunes occur through no fault of his, such as getting hauled to jail because the police officer thought Ignatius looked suspicious. Ignatius has some weird ideas about why these misfortunes happen including bad vibes from a goddess named Fortuna.
He maintains a correspondence with a girl named Myrna Minkoff who lives in New York and who he met while she was in college in New Orleans. Those back-and-forth letters between Ignatius and Myrna are a whole story inside a story, as are other incidents in the story’s complete plot.
Ignatius’s mother Irene is quite a character; Ignatius exaggerates her drinking problem, adding humor. Irene changes over the course of the plot going from a wimpy, resigned mother to standing up for herself which infuriates Ignatius.
Some of the characters talk with a New Orleans dialect which is entertaining, much like Mark Twain’s dialogue writing in Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Here is a snippet of conversation between Patrolman Mancuso and his sergeant:
Mancuso: “You gotta tage me oud thad badroom. I can breed no more.” What he’s saying: You got to take me out of that bad room. I can breathe no more.
Mancuso: “My at says if I stay iddat badroom, I’b gudda die.” What he’s saying: My aunt says if I stay in that bad room, I’m gonna die.
Mancuso: “I’b gudda try. I’b gudda brig you subbody.” What he’s saying: “I’m gonna try. I’m gonna bring you somebody.”
This classic book was published through the perseverance of Toole’s mother, Thelma, and a college professor, 11 years after the author’s suicide in 1969. Toole had tried to get it published for years after writing it. It won a Pulitzer in 1981. Thelma died in 1984.
Take away: Never give up on your dreams.
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