A Confederacy Of Dunces

A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES
by John Kennedy Toole

 Award: Pulitzer Winner 1981

 Nomination: LA Times Finalist 1981, PEN/Faulkner Finalist 1981

 Date Read: October 16, 2009

 I had heard of this book long before I ever read it due to the suicide of the author and the posthumous Pulitzer award. Believing his work worthless and suffering from severe depression, Toole took his own life in 1969. The book only came to print in 1980 due to the herculean efforts of his mother and the author, Walker Percy.

 A Confederacy of Dunces centers mainly on the protagonist, Ignatius Reilly, a slovenly, self-taught scholar who lives with his mother. While he is undoubtedly a man of some intelligence, his belief in his own abilities borders on delusional at times. This character is written so well, I can vividly picture him in my mind and his misadventures caused me to laugh out loud on several occasions.

 As I write this, I actually long to meet this slob again and will most likely revisit A Confederacy of Dunces. 

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