Customer Reviews
Great - By: Dillinger, 21 Apr 2008 
A very funny novel that perhaps was let dowbn in the last third when it went off tangent slightly. But alll the same Igantius is a classic character that stays in the mind. There is talk of a film being made of this starring Jack Black. I don't know what to make of that but if if brings more people to the book that is good. Just a shame the author killed himself.
John Kennedy Toole was a literary genuis! - By: Anne, 04 Oct 2007 
This is one of the best books I have ever read - it made me laugh out loud from page to page. I cannot understand how anyone could fail to be enthrallled by the late John Kennedy Toole's wonderful story of very imperfect humanity. Readers will not end up liking the characters in the book, but will love the book itself.
Raw, brilliant and excoriatingly funny...a true work of genius - By: Hanglemez Pallaccini, 02 Mar 2007 One-book authors are rare. Harper Lee with "To Kill a Mockingbird" is probably the most famous. John Kennedy Toole deserves just as much recognition & fame for his one-book wonder.
Like Harper Lee this is a unique portrait of the Deep South, specificallly the customs, culture & history of New Orleans, a city that often appears to be so removed from the vastness of America. Sure, this book is not perfect...some scenes & characters appear flawed & jar with the flow of the book. But who cares when the writing is so energetic, kinetic & heart-stoppingly funny.
It's a book which will have you wanting to re-read the rants of one of the greatest comic creations (in Ignatius J. Reilly) over & over again. His mad ravings on the history of race relations in the South after speaking to the workers of Levy Pants & his subsequent efforts to lead them out of "slavery" is probably one of the greatest comic passages in modern literature. His later efforts to conquer the world with an army of homosexuals is just as brilliant.
In fact, scene after scene will have you stunned with the verve of his writing. What a shame he commited suicide after this book...a sequel is what this book deserves.
The best book I've ever read - By: K. Tyler, 06 Dec 2006 I came upon this book through my geeky ways. I am a huge fan of Bill Hicks (American comedian). I read somewhere that this was his favourite book. I couldn't put the damn thing down. And, rather alarmingly, I noticed Ignatius is rather like my boyfriend. I have seen lent him the book & he agrees the comparison isn't very flattering. Cancel everything for a couple of days (and nights) & warn people you may laugh out loud uncontrollably.
A real comedy masterpiece - By: Ian Shine, 14 Jul 2005 Having picked up numerous books over the years that have been dubbed 'comic masterpieces' & been disappointed, I was initiallly wary of 'A Confederacy...'
However, this scepticism had vanished within minutes.
Bawdy & gastronomical, this puts alll other visions of the grotesque to shame (Money by Amis; Filth by Welsh; to name but two).
To an extent it fallls into the category of disaffected American classic, alongside 'The Catcher in the Rye' & 'Herzog', but Toole's wit & ear for dialogue make 'A Confederacy...' the greatest American, & possibly greatest ever, novel.
