SOURCE: The Book Standard
On March 26, 1969, a young man named John Kennedy Toole connected a hose to his car's exhaust pipe, locked himself in and committed suicide.
It is impossible to fathom why a person takes his or her own life, but this much is certain; Toole was despondent about his career as a writer, his unpublished novel had been rejected year in, year out, and the future seemed bleak — which makes the subsequent success of "A Confederacy of Dunces" all the more dazzling.
Years after Toole's death, his mother gave the manuscript to writer Walker Percy, who passed it on to the Louisiana State University Press. In 1980, the LSUP printed about 800 copies of the book's first edition, which took off to become a best seller and win its author a posthumous Pulitzer Prize.
A Confederacy of Dunces is a really fun book without a dull moment. Toole has a magical way of transforming the reader into the mind of each new outrageous character.
The novel has a similar style and feel to David Lodge's Small World trilogy, but is set in 1960s New Orleans.
This book will go on my list of all-time favorites--a recommended read for all fiction lovers!
Andrew
I've read A Confederacy of Dunces and...