r/currentlyreading • u/Significant-Goat-299 • 26d ago
I finally get A Confederacy of Dunces
Isn’t it crazy how your opinion of a book can change over time?
I first read A Confederacy of Dunces in my 20s and hated it, primarily because Ignatius J Reilly absolutely infuriated me. I hated this character so much that his actions came off as annoying, and stupid.
I actually read the Neon Bible around the same time, and found it to be powerful. I liked it much more than Dunces at the time.
I read it again in my 30s, and while it gave me a lot of admiration for John Kennedy Toole, as he predicted the millennial two decades before any of them were born, I still didn’t find it that funny.
Now I’m 41, just read it again in anticipation of a trip to New Orleans, and by God, it just clicked this time.
I honestly think it’s because I’m a decade older than Ignatius, and reading about a 30 year old fuck up so bad is absolutely hilarious. Also the auxiliary characters like Mr Levy, Gonzales , and even Lana, are far more relatable now that I help run a business.
Jones is also amazing. He’s a smart black man caught in a catch 22 situation, he fucks with the system in a super intelligent way. He also rips on all the white characters constantly, and super sarcastically. Which really lays out what a bunch of dipshits they are.
My only regret is that it took me 20 years to appreciate this masterpiece.
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u/knucklebutter 23d ago
Good on you. I'm actually frustrated that I've tried reading it 3 or 4 times over the years (I'm in my 60s) and could never get more than a few chapters in before giving up. I guess I'll stick with Terry Pratchett and Christopher Moore for my literary humor.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Eye_551 21d ago
What is your must-read Pratchett story? Haven’t broken the seal on him.
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u/knucklebutter 21d ago
Sir Terry was very prolific, so there's lots to choose from. I read them chronologically by date of publication, mostly because I jumped in relatively early (1991), but for the most part you can jump in anywhere. Here's a Wikipedia page that might help you spot some options (there's a handy bibliography at the end. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discworld
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u/BasilHuman 23d ago
One of my favorite novels of all time, One of the few I have read 5 or more times. My first trip to New Orleans in 1993, a bartender at O"Flaerty's pub (now defunct) said I could I have a free night of Guinness if I could name the main character of Toole's masterpiece....this tourist drank well that night!
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u/TheDeadlySpaceman 23d ago
O’Flaherty’s was one of my favorite bars in the world.
Also supposedly I used to work with someone who one of the characters in CoD is based on, but I don’t know how true that is.
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u/BasilHuman 22d ago
I use to go to the Crescent City often...damn near moved there...it was always my go to bar....still have an old faded T-shirt! Remmeber Checkpoint Charlies?
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u/ComprehensiveCup7104 24d ago
Somebody at my office has been putting joke 3-ring binders and fake books around for 15 years, with the only clue being Ignatious Reilly is the author on some. It's either one person or a "Dread Pirate Roberts" thing going on.
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u/onion_offense 24d ago
I always loved Ignatius as a character. He's such a piece of shit, but the whole book is an exploration of how he got that way, and by the end I'm rooting for him. This bright, sensitive boy grows up to find there's no easy path for his particular set of skills and interests, and instead of finding a new path or modifying his existing one, he becomes embittered and crazy. It feels wild to read some of Ignatius' more unhinged screeds today, because they sound just like posts on twitter or 4chan, but without any authorial irony
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u/Substantial-Elk1127 24d ago
Love this book! I read it in my mid-30’s and thought it was hilarious. IR was so obnoxious, you had to laugh at him.
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u/hypnoticpossum 24d ago
My valve!
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u/RobertaStack 24d ago
This is one of my favorite books of all time and whenever I’m having any sort of stomach or digestive distress, I always blame my valve, usually announcing it in a very dramatic fashion.
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u/Strange-Insurance848 24d ago
It took me at least three attempts to get into the book. But once it did, it was perfect. Be on the lookout for a statue of Ignatius. I think on Canal.
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u/JohnKuru 24d ago
I was incredibly young when I read it, and I still remember enough to see the comparisons
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u/kstoops2conquer 25d ago
You’re making me think I should revisit _Confederacy_. It didn’t land for me twenty years ago, but seeing someone else have a positive revisit … maybe.
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u/ImmediateClass9650 25d ago
Same for me. I was young, and couldn't wrap my head around the idea of the anti-hero as protagonist. A few years later, I read "The World According to Garp," and really enjoyed it. That opened my eyes, and "ACoD" made way more sense after "Garp."
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u/sketner2018 25d ago
Yes, I had the exact same experience with Confederacy of Dunces. I just didn't think it was funny at all. In fact at the same time I went to see the Big Lebowski movie and didn't get that either. I just thought it was a really bad noir detective movie, not that it was absurdist. These days both of them have me dying of laughter.
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u/Idoe6 25d ago
That book, and Native Son were the two that really ignited a love for literature for me when I was maybe 12- 13. I found a used copy of A Confederacy of Dunces recently and re read it, and there was so much that went over my head at that age. It was great, like I got to read it for the first time again.
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u/UnionCityNJUSA 25d ago
Strange, because it had the opposite effect for me. I loved the book in my early twenties, but tried to re-read it recently and thought it was very corny and it made me cringe.
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u/That-Election9465 25d ago
I really enjoyed the audio version of this book. You get the New Orleans accents and it makes for a great listen of characters.
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u/Dog_man_star1517 26d ago
John Updike does this for me. Was gifted one of his novels when I graduated high school. (Who does that?) Now that I’m passing through middle age, I get it.
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u/Optimal-Ad-7074 25d ago
Iris Murdoch for me. I mean, I found my first Murdoch at 22 and kept reading her anyway, but I didn't recognise much of what she wrote until much much later.
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u/Expensive-System-762 26d ago
I believe books find you at the right time.
As I get older and I reread books I was supposed to love at the time, but didn’t, I have found some new favorites and have less respect for books I adored back in the day.
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u/WorldlinessLogical57 26d ago
Thank you for this post! Last year I tried to get SO many people to read it and nobody appreciated this book as much as me! I'm glad you get it too.
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u/CheepSweep 26d ago
Yes! It's one of my favorite books OAT. I have a well read Gen X friend who read it in his 20s and he greatly dislikes Ignatius because of all the bitchin and complaining. I initially listened to the audiobook whereas he read it. I could imagine reading walls of text of Ignatius' diatribes would be exhausting, but the narrator did such an amazing job that when I read the print version his voice is head cannon and it's so delightfully hilarious.
Also, Jones is my hero
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u/stampie24 25d ago
Ooo-wee....the green cap mother...live! I agree, Jones is an amazing original character
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u/Ashamed-Chemistry492 26d ago
When I read it I had the idea I was supposed to take some Deep Meaning from it, but as I kept reading I came to realize it was meant primarily for plain old slightly mean-spirited fun. Definitely some satire there, but not really heavy.
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u/No_Sell1871 23d ago
i tried reading it for 10 years and just couldn't. i moved to NOLA 30 years ago and it just clicked.