Comedy at Its Best!

A Confederacy of Dunces
             by John Kennedy Toole


"When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this
sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him."

                                                                                   -- Johathan Swift


From that beginning, John Kennedy Toole takes the reader on one of the most outrageous adventures in literature.  The A Confederacy of Dunces is set in New Orleans in the early 1960s and follows the trials and tribulations of one Ignatius J. Reilly as he struggles to enter the world.

At around 30, Ignatius is still living at home.  He has a good education, but suffers from arrested development or failure to launch or whatever it is that besets young people who don't quite make the transition from child to adult in a timely fashion.

But, nature seems to push such fledglings to the edge of the nest despite their resistance.  For Ignatius, an accident at the beginning of the book sends him out into the world in search of a job.  He does, in fact, find work first in a dysfunctional clothing factory and then as a hot dog vendor in the French Quarter.

At the same time, Ignatius is involved in a long distance relationship of sorts with a New York City beatnik who begins all her letters to him with the salutation, "Sirs:" as a result of her habit of writing so many protest letters.  Myna is convinced that all the ills Ignatius suffers stem from his unexpressed sexuality.

Many of his most outrageous adventures stem from the fact that Ignatius -- and all the people around him -- view the world each from their own peculialy idiosyncratic perspectives.  The meshing and grinding of all those perspectives creates a delicious and touching comedy that culminates in a thuroughly satisfying ending.

I love this book.  I especially love listening to it.  The audio version is exceptionally well done and adds to the overall enjoyment of an excellent stroy.

About Buffalo Book Blog

I am writing a book blog because I read -- or listen to -- a lot of books.

I usually have at least three books going at a time. One of my great joys is listening to a good book while I do other things such as wander through the grocery store, drive to work, or fold laundry. I usually go through three to five audio books a week and I thank the Goddess of Good Reading for my local library that has a great collection of MP3 and WMA books.

Awhile back, I acquired an e-reader. I chose a Nook really for just one reason. I am profoundly uneasy with the idea of getting all my books and other reading material from a single source. Even if that source sells or otherwise provides everything that can be sold or provided. For reading, we must always have choices.

Unlike most of my bookish friends, I liked the concept of e-readers the moment I heard of it. For about the size and weight of a small notebook, I can have with me dozens, even hundreds of books to satisfy a momentary whim or look up a favorite quote. I can haul my entire library to the beach and never break a sweat. With that realization, it took me about three seconds to get over the book-in-my-hand-smell-of-the-paper thing.

Recently, I listened to Where Good Ideas Come From, by Steven Johnson. I expected the book to be what a friend calls "oomi goomi" (I think the term is self-explanatory). It was not. It was full of genuinely good, concrete ideas for generating more good ideas.

One of the things I learned is that people in the 1800s read several books at a time and often kept notes on their readings in a kind of unrestrained, disorganized way with random thoughts flung helter-skelter over the page and often with a sprinkling of personal observations, shopping lists, and drawings. The unusual juxtaposition of ideas and disjointed thoughts - basically, the clutter of the page - actually inspired some great new thoughts, ideas, and inventions.

WaHoo! I am the Queen of Clutter and I am sure I can clutter up a page as well as anything else. I have started keeping a thoroughly disjointed notebook with great expectations. With the Nook enabling my inclination to read several books at a time, I can always have whatever I want to read right at hand. Bring on the ideas!

In my blogs, I plan to make it clear if I am listening to a book or reading it. The experience is different and, I think, significant. For example, I got hooked on Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Lady Detective series about an African woman who becomes the only lady detective in Botswana. The stories are enchanting; the characters are engaging, the incidental cultural insights are enlightening. What's not to like?

I gave sets of the books to friends who, by and large, were not able to work up much enthusiasm for them.

I think the difference was just that I listened to the stories as they were read by an accomplished actress with a lovely lilting voice who pronounced the name of every person and every place exactly right. The overall charm of the stories, I think, was greatly enhanced by the listening experience.

I like listening to fiction and seldom go back to listen to a fiction book a second time. That is not always true, but often enough that I am happy to use the library for fiction.

On the other hand, I like to read or listen to non-fiction books a second time and some times, several times. They are, therefore, generally a good investment.

So, I am blogging to share my thoughts on some of my favorite books. I hope this will be a place where other readers will come to share their comments, thoughts, and favorites as well.