A Confederacy of Dunces
John Kennedy Toole · 1937–1969 · United States
Why it matters
A grandiose, flatulent, medievalist misfit rages through 1960s New Orleans in search of employment he's constitutionally unfit for. Toole killed himself over its rejection; his mother's decade-long campaign got it published, and it won the Pulitzer posthumously.
At a glance
satirepicaresquecomedy
Difficulty 4/10fast pace394 pagesComic, fast-moving prose despite an eccentric, digressive protagonist.
Deep dive
Why Ignatius Reilly's devotion to Boethius's Wheel of Fortune never actually teaches him anything, and what that refusal says about the entire idea of a comic novel's happy ending.
Where to go next
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