Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

Kill for a book? We´ve read about this in Umberto Eco´s novel ´The Name of the Rose´. Kill oneself because of a book? Sadly, this happened in real life when John Kennedy Toole (born 1936) realised that no publisher was interested in the manuscript of his novel ´The Confederacy of Dunces´, he committed suicide in 1969. Only thanks to his mother who kept pestering people and finally, in 1976, succeeded in making the novelist and professor of literature Walker Percy promise to have a look at it the literary world knows about this book; in the foreword to the Penguin edition he admits to have taken the manuscript only to get rid of the woman, glance at the first ...  Read the complete review

Apart from one other published book written when the author was just 16, 'A Confederacy of Dunces' is John Kennedy Toole's only work, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1981. The novel however was written sometime during the 60's, and when Toole had become depressed by his failure in getting the book published he comitted suicide at the age of 32. It was only through the faithful persistence of his mother that this classic book eventually reached printing presses and into the hands of many lucky readers. The latest Penguin Classics edition (and previous editions) comes complete with a brief and worthy foreword to the book by Walker ...  Read the complete review

Just a quick history on this book, before I go into details: The author, John Kennedy Toole, wrote this book in the late 1960's. He couldn't get it published, and he ended up committing suicide. His mother found the manuscript and managed to get it published. It went on to win a Pulitzer Prize. I have passed by this book in the bookstore many times, mainly because by the time I see the book I?m already at my book limit for the day. (That is, the limit of books I allow myself to buy in one trip to the bookstore. If I didn?t set a limit for myself, I?d probably walk out with a towering stack of novels every time!) The other day, however, I finally bought ...  Read the complete review

Once, I gave a friend a copy of John Le Carre's The Naive and Sentimental Lover, on the grounds that he was very likely to grow up into something resembling the central character. If you recall Shamus from this- it is good, but ought to be heavy going for most- you will realise that was not entirely a complement. Then he sent me a copy of this, on much the same grounds. Score 1-0 to him, and rather spectacularly at that. This is certainly not science fiction- it is set in the the real- world seventies, in New Orleans- but it may well qualify as fantasy, and considering just how cracked and removed to their own little worlds everyone is, it is definitely ...  Read the complete review

I had never heard of this book until my best friend insisted I buy it. I didn't so he bought me a copy, and sent it over the water to me as a present. From the first description of the main character and his endless life issues, I laughed and laughed. The book was written a while ago but if the book had been set in the here and now it would grasp modern society really well, simply through the characters. I think the author had an exceptional ability to create interesting, hilarious, ridiculous yet relevant characters and place them in scenarios which are a bit out there but actually plausible... The bulllied policeman forced to generate attractive crime fighting ...  Read the complete review