"The hero of John Kennedy Toole's incomparable comic classic is one Ignatius J. Reilly, "huge, obese, fractious, fastidious, a latter-day Gargantua, a Don Quixote of the French Quarter. His story bursts with wholly original characters, denizens of New Orleans' lower depths, incredibly true-to-life dialogue, and the zaniest series of high and low comic adventures." -(Henry Kisor, Chicago Sun-Times)"







Number 291 on the 2006 list of "1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die"

Number 730 on the 2008 list of "1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die"

RELEASE NOTES:

Mailed to JennyC1230 in Georgia

Thanks for sending the book!

Book Review on Amazon:

This book is quite simply a comic masterpiece, a novel brimming with original characters, absurd situations, and at its heart a blustery, vulnerable mama's boy named Ignatius J. Reilly. He is one of the most startlingly original characters in modern fiction, and his efforts at hitting the job market after his mother smashes their car will leave you in stitches.
A word on the history of the novel is worth mentioning here. The author, John Kennedy Toole, committed suicide in 1969, and his mother found the hand-written manuscript in her son's papers. She brought them to a publisher, who dreaded having to read even a portion of the work and to notify Toole's mother that it stunk. Instead, he was blown away by Toole's draft, and the rest is history. The novel earned him a posthumous Pulitzer Prize, and it is universally hailed by critics.

Trying to summarize the plot is impossible - the book cannot really be categorized. Ignatius is an over-educated oaf who stays home filling his writing tablets full of his offbeat musings on ancient history, which he plans to organize and publish some day but which presently reside all over his bedroom floor. Rome wasn't built in a day he reminds himself. He cites in footnotes, as authority for some of his offbeat opinions, papers he had previously written and hand-delivered to the local university library for inclusion into their archives. He watches dreadful tv shows and movies, howling at the screen with a mixture of delight and loathing at the teenybopper drivel, and in the privacy of his room his self-gratification is performed while imagining visions of the old family dog. And wait til you see him out in public, getting a series of odd jobs, including a filing clerk at Levy Pants (with very innovative filing techniques to avoid crowded file space) as well as a costumed hot dog vendor wandering around the French Quarter in a pirate costume. All the while he begins work on his latest opus, The Journal of the Working Boy.

There is a latent sadness to the plot, for while you are laughing out loud at Ignatius, his bowling-addicted mother, and the motley crew of skillfully drawn supporting characters, you sense that he will never really belong anywhere, and that he realizes his outcast status with his innate intelligence. Perhaps the author felt the same way in 1969, leading to his own suicide.

However, at least Toole did leave us A Confederacy of Dunces, a novel which reveals more with each rereading. Keep it on your shelf, and every now and then pick up the book to any page and marvel at the absurdity of Ignatius's grandiose ramblings, read exerpts of his bizarre historical writings, and revisit his comic efforts to organize a worker's revolt at Levy Pants. The list goes on and on. There is no work of literature like it I know, and my only regret in reading Toole is the sorrow felt in knowing the tremendous body of work that was lost when he ended his life.

Information on the author: John Kennedy Toole.

I read this book when I was probably 15 or 16 years old. It's not quite as funny as I remembered it. I am glad that I re-read it, though. The character of the book - Ignatius J. Reilly was quite repellant! It was shocking that he had a girl who even liked him a little, but once you got to know Myrna through the story, you realized she was just as strange as Ignatius!

Finding out more about the author's tragic life was interesting as well.

I have offered to donate this book to the 1001-library, since I don't think they already have a copy...

Thanks so much for your donation JennyC1230!

This book is now part of the 1001-library. If you want to take this book from the library but don't know how to proceed, please refer to the library bookshelf.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

If you have found this book, welcome to Bookcrossing and thank you for taking the time to let us know about its journey. Feel free to enjoy the book and pass it along to a friend, neighbor, family member or co-worker, or simply leave it somewhere for another lucky reader to enjoy as you did! This book isn’t your type of read? No problem, don't feel obliged to read it, just be kind enough to help it on its journey. If you join, please use my name as your referring member: JennyC1230.

Sending to hyphen8 from the 1001 library! Mailed via USPS Media Mail - Delivery Confirmation #9102805213683003031283.

Enjoy!

Received today with thanks. This sounds like it will be quite an adventure!

I tried, but I just couldn't get into this, so I'll let the librarians know that it's available again. On the other hand, if it doesn't get borrowed from me, I might give it another shot, eventually. :)

NOTE: As of March 2012, this book is in flewry's 1001 Library VBB.

This book is now back on the 1001 library bookshelf and can be borrowed by PMing hyphen8:)

If you want to take this book from the library but don't know how to proceed, please refer to the library bookshelf.

Headed off on new adventures as part of flewry's 1001-library VBB.

Received via media mail for flewry's VBB 1001-library books from hyphen8. Thanks for sending this one; very much appreciated. I can't wait to read it.