Have you ever read a book that made you laugh out loud? How about a book that made you laugh out loud more than once or twice? Okay, then, how about a book that makes you laugh out loud from the beginning to the end?
The funniest book ever written has got to be A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. A Confederacy of Dunces would be a legendary novel even if its author hadn't committed suicide, thereby creating the real-life amazing story of a determined mother hell-bent on getting her dead son's masterpiece published. While A Confederacy of Dunces has also earned its place in Hollywood history by being perhaps the most famous unfilmed script of the last twenty years, the story of how John Kennedy Toole's mother got it published-eventually earning the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction-would make an equally fascinating film. Certainly more so than Mission Impossible III, or X-Men III, or Lord of the Rings III.
What makes A Confederacy of Dunces the funniest book ever written is, primarily, its main character. Ignatius J. Reilly is the most unforgettable character in recent American literature, and I go so far as to say that he's the most unforgettable character in all of American literature history. (He's certainly more interesting than Jay Gatsby, who officially received that honor a few years ago from Book Magazine. Amazingly, Ignatius only managed to rank number 17 in that poll. WTF where they thinking!!!) Bloated beyond all reason both physically and egoistically, Ignatius has withdrawn from the modern world, which in this case is New Orleans in the late 50s/early 60s. Ignatius Reilly is an obese, opinionated, unemployed man who still lives with his mother and is completely out of touch with the world. Ignatius Reilly is also a college graduate whose philosophical worldview is based upon the medieval writings of Boethius. According to Ignatius, the world lost its way sometime around the Renaissance has been sliding down a slippery slope ever since.
The funniest book ever written has got to be A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. A Confederacy of Dunces would be a legendary novel even if its author hadn't committed suicide, thereby creating the real-life amazing story of a determined mother hell-bent on getting her dead son's masterpiece published. While A Confederacy of Dunces has also earned its place in Hollywood history by being perhaps the most famous unfilmed script of the last twenty years, the story of how John Kennedy Toole's mother got it published-eventually earning the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction-would make an equally fascinating film. Certainly more so than Mission Impossible III, or X-Men III, or Lord of the Rings III.
What makes A Confederacy of Dunces the funniest book ever written is, primarily, its main character. Ignatius J. Reilly is the most unforgettable character in recent American literature, and I go so far as to say that he's the most unforgettable character in all of American literature history. (He's certainly more interesting than Jay Gatsby, who officially received that honor a few years ago from Book Magazine. Amazingly, Ignatius only managed to rank number 17 in that poll. WTF where they thinking!!!) Bloated beyond all reason both physically and egoistically, Ignatius has withdrawn from the modern world, which in this case is New Orleans in the late 50s/early 60s. Ignatius Reilly is an obese, opinionated, unemployed man who still lives with his mother and is completely out of touch with the world. Ignatius Reilly is also a college graduate whose philosophical worldview is based upon the medieval writings of Boethius. According to Ignatius, the world lost its way sometime around the Renaissance has been sliding down a slippery slope ever since.
- The book was published after the suicide of its author.
- Don't let the fact that it won the Pulitzer Price for Fiction scare you away.
- You will laugh out loud at least a dozen times.
Comments
Chris W
(Guest)
(Guest)
12/31/2009
A few years ago, someone gave me a copy of a book called One Man's Odyssey to Annihilate Violence. It was an anonymously written novel by a distinguished doctor and scientist who was also an underground cage fighter. He wrote the book for charity. If you thought Confederacy of Dunces was funny, this book was on a higher plane. I never read anything like it. Has anyone else read it or know what became of it?
Peter Archer
(Guest)
(Guest)
06/25/2009
"The Baby in the Bag, A Politically Incorrect Tale" - highly recommended!!
JA
(Guest)
(Guest)
09/02/2007
It isn't American literature, but you might want to compare Ignatius to some of the characters in "The Banjo Players Must Die", here:
http://www.SanCairoDiCopenhagen.com/tbpmd.html
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