A review by n8hanson
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

2.0

I was supposed to like this book. At least four other millennials recommended it, and eventually a friend just gifted it to me. Morally obligated to read it, the struggle to continue sometimes tested my patience.

I'm sure this was rather progressive for its time. But the racial/gender/sexuality tokenizing and general absurdity for the sake of cheap laughs fell flat, and the satire was usually too crude and slapstick to redeem it. It didn't help that the main character was exhaustingly tedious.

I can understand why it's so popular. Most of the characters, however caricaturistic they remained, were well-developed archetypes with coherent motives and dialogue, and their colliding realities were sometimes entertaining. The overall moral arc was satisfying, despite the episodic social critiques falling flat.

The hard part will be honestly and kindly answering my friend's question of whether I liked it, given it's among his favorites...