Book Review - Confederacy of Dunces

Due to the prodding of my friend (I use the term quite loosely, mayhaps I should say associate), I just read and finished Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. My immeidate impression? Loved it. Could have been better, but there were features and passages that I thought were spectacular. One aspect that tickles my funny bone is the secretary at the pants company, the secretary Trixi, continually calls Ignatius, the main character, Gloria. For some reason I find this to be the funniset part of the whole book.

While working at the pants factory, Ignatius, who prides himself on being something of a political organizer, foments a rebellion among the workers which quickly piddles out. Reading about his erzatz rebellion was worth the price of admission.

Finally, Toole does something that I've always been impressed by, but really should be. I've always loved the way writers will take seemingly disparate characters and pull them together at the end of the story in a cohesive way. The film Crash is a terrific example of this. My dream? To do this myself. Kinda setting my sights low, eh?

Some of the passages I enjoyed are listed below:

Miss Trixie drifted off toward the ladies room as if she were tacking into a gale. Miss Trixie was never perfectly vertical; she and the floor always met at an angle of less than ninety degrees.


When Ignatius takes a turn at being a Lucky Dog vendor the following takes place:

"May I select my own?" Ignatius asked, peering down over the top of the pot. In the boiling water swished and lashed like artificially colored and magnified paramecia. Ignatius filled his lungs with the pungent aroma. "I shall pretend that I am in a smart restaurant and that this is the lobster pond."
Then after he eats a couple of hot dogs, Ignatius says to the vendor something that I think is the most preceint line that sums him up.

"I am afraid that they will all have to be on the house. Or on the garage or whatever it is. My Miss Marple of a mother discovered a number of theater ticket stubs in my pockets last night and has given me only carfare today."


Ignatius describes a boy who tries to buy a hotdog from him as:


Ignatius looked sternly at the young boy who had placed himself in the wagon's path. His valve protested against the pimples, the surly face that seemed to hang from the long well-lubricated hair, the cigarette behind the ear, the aquamarine jacket, the delicate boots, the tight trousers that bulged offensively in the crotch in violation of all rules of theology and geometry.

Later in the book that same young man describes Ignatius for the reader from his own POV:

You could tell by the way that he talked, though, that he had gone to school a long time. That was probably what was wrong with him. George had been wise enough to get out school as soon as possible. He didn't want to end up like that guy.


Finally, I love this description. If I don't use it in my daily life in the near future I'll be upset with myself:

Please blow your smoke elswhere. My respiratory system, unfortunately, is below par. I suspect that I am the result of particularly weak conception on the part of my father. His sperm probably emitted in a rather offhand manner."

All in all I loved the book and I'm sorry to say that. I've been planning on reading it for years. I wish I had sooner. Reminded me a lot of a New Orleans Douglas Adams with a less celestial subject matter.