Well, I finally finished "Confederacy of Dunces". I have this sick disease that makes me finish every book that I start even if it is truly awful. The only time I have been able to break this curse was with Neal Stephenson's plodding epic "Quicksliver" that I got as a galley copy the summer I worked at Barnes and Noble. I guess there are several reasons why I shouldn't have even started that one, but I couldn't think of any reason not to pick up Toole's Pulitzer Prize winning book. In fact, when you type in "confederacy of dunces" at amazon.com the related books are "Infinite Jest", "Gravity's Rainbow", and "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" Fine books, all. I don't see the connection.
The gimmick of the book is that the reader is drawn to this overeducated oaf who is forced into the job market and has disasterous results. Remember that scene in Catcher in the Rye when Holden introduces us to Stradlater and Ackley. Ackley is the bad-breath, pimple-faced loser. Stradlater is the jock that gets the girls and pushes homework off on others. By comparison, Holden doesn't look so bad. If it was just him though you'd see him for the pessimistic, whiney, loony that he is. (Full disclosure: Catcher in the Rye is one of my top 5 books)
Same deal here; Ignatius is surrounded by characters that are so flat and bumbling that he seems endearing. Does this book get you to think deeper about, appreciate the nuances of, or view life any different? Nope. Toole does a good job capturing and filling the book with the different dialects of New Orleans but the characters are boring and unlikeable, and regardless of how many people say this book is a comic masterpiece, I didn't laugh or even chuckle once. The situations that come around are silly, not funny and I'll be hard pressed to tell you anything about this book in a week.
Imagine "The Simpsons" from the point of view of the fat comic book store owner and you have Confederacy of Dunces in a nutshell. Maybe good for a half hour of your time but not for a 300+ page book.
