A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy TooleMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
For fans of farces, Boethius and Don Quixote, this is a must read!
Otherwise, readers might want to pass on it. Although I am not a Boethius scholar, I enjoyed the convoluted plot and subplots, and the main reason I continued to read was to see how they would all be resolved.
The main premise can be summed up as: an obese man, Ignatius J. Reilly, living by Boethius' ethics (The Consolations of Philosophy) cannot seem to (physically or spiritually) fit into the 'modern world' of 1960s New Orleans.
I've never liked the cover, which is one reason for my not having read Toole's novel until now. I had trouble with the datedness of the text: Ignatius' Quixotic attitude toward 'corrupt' civilization and its 'corrupt' denizens, the social situation (read stereotyping) of gays and blacks, activism, Freudianism and the odd motivations of some of the characters. I also had difficulty, on only one quick read, understanding the role of "Fortuna" and how Toole uses this Medieval concept in the application of justice to his characters.
Having said all of that, I would re-read this novel, since I think it does have an important message about the individual and her interaction with her social setting.
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