A Confederacy of Dunces

I was intrigued to read A Confederacy of Dunces (CoD) as it was one of the few books on the list that I had never heard of. It's an interesting one.

For once, I read the foreword to get a bit of background. The author, John Kennedy Toole, wrote CoD in the early 60s and failed to get it published. He eventually committed suicide, and his mother took up the cause. The manuscript landed on the publisher's desk, in a messy, handwritten, smudged state. He hoped that it would be terrible, so that he didn't have to read much of it, but within a few pages was hooked and so took it forward for publication.

The novel is described as a comedy, and some reviewers describe it as the funniest thing they have ever read. I wouldn't go that far, but it is an entertaining read. It's set in New Orleans, and the central character, Ignatius J Reilly, is a 30 year old man, enormously obese, and with an entirely unique view of the world. At the start of the novel, Ignatius continues to live at home with his long-suffering mother, not working, and spending his days writing ranting treatises on various subjects, wallowing in the bath, and lying in his "yellowing sheets" (ugh!). Due to an incident that places financial pressure on his mother, she snaps and forces him out to get a job. It is only when Ignatius has to interact with the outside world that the extent of his insane world view becomes clear. The slightest incident causes him to unleash streams of abuse at the individual; he calls anything he disapproves of an "abortion" which makes for slightly uncomfortable reading. He is a comic character, due to the extent of his hideousness...it's difficult to explain this further without giving too much away, but the contrast of his puritanical world view (whilst not hesitating to lie, cheat and steal) with free and easy New Orleans demonstrates that he is almost a caricature with no redeeming features, rather than (you hope) a feasible individual.

It's an easy read. I didn't love it, because I find it really hard to love a book unless I can identify with at least one of the characters, and there is very little to like in any of the characters here. However, it is humorous. The characters are well defined, although one dimensional, and the events which play out are entertaining. If you like the style of Martin Amis, you may well like this!