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A Confederacy of Dunces

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A Confederacy of Dunces

By: John Kennedy Toole
Narrated by: Reginald D. Hunter
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

One of the BBC's '100 Novels That Shaped Our World'

A monument to sloth, rant and contempt, a behemoth of fat, flatulence and furious suspicion of anything modern—this is Ignatius J. Reilly of New Orleans, noble crusader against a world of dunces. The ordinary folk of New Orleans seem to think he is unhinged. Ignatius ignores them, heaving his vast bulk through the city's fleshpots in a noble crusade against vice, modernity and ignorance. But his momma has a nasty surprise in store for him: Ignatius must get a job. Undaunted, he uses his new-found employment to further his mission—and now he has a pirate costume and a hot-dog cart to do it with....

Never published during his lifetime, John Kennedy Toole's hilarious satire A Confederacy of Dunces is a Don Quixote for the modern age, now brought to life by the comedy legend, Reginald D. Hunter.

©2000 John Kennedy Toole (P)2021 Penguin Audio Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Satire Comedy Witty Funny New Orleans Crusade

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Critic reviews

"My favourite book of all time...it stays with you long after you have read it—for your whole life, in fact." (Billy Connolly)

"A pungent work of slapstick, satire and intellectual incongruities...it is nothing less than a grand comic fugue." (The New York Times)
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This is a dear book to me. A tale my.late father and I read together and one I plan to read to my children. So I pre-ordered this, as soon as I saw it was going to be released. Possibly the narrator will grow on me, but I'm finding that he slips through some words, rather than annunciating them clearly. I've currently.set the reading speed to 90%, which seems be helping a little. The narrator's tone is rich and can be nuanced but I just feel, although clearly capable, he isn't the best choice for this book. I will update/edit this review, if he does indeed grow on me, but at the moment, I'm unable to sink into the story completely as the narration is somehow out of sink and slightly jarring.

Wonderful story. Maybe not the clearest narrator.

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I had been recommended this book by a mate and had it in my collection for a while as I waited for the Audible version. Some people have criticised the narration but I enjoyed it and felt he did a good job with a demanding set of voices. I do accept that an ensemble approached might have been more effective but I was simply grateful to have the book brought to life at all. It is that most difficult of art forms: the comic novel. It can so easily fall flat on its face or run out of steam but this extraordinary, dare I say, 'classic' novel sped along in top gear for the best part of 13 hours. I loved it, I loved Ignatius J. Reilly and I would have loved John Kennedy Toole to have stuck around long enough to see his work triumph - and maybe conquer New York with 'The Minkoff Minx".

Oh Fortuna!

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I read this because it was featured in Andy Miller’s “The Year of Reading Dangerously”. It’s a comic novel set in New Orleans in the middle decades of the 20th century about an idle intellectual man, Ignatius J. Reilly, living with his mother. Ignatius eventually has to get a job to support his mother after a car accident. It’s not really about the plot. It reminds me of early Beckett. This audiobook version is brilliantly narrated by Reginald D. Hunter, who is excellent at voice acting and bringing out the comedy. However, it had the weird effect of making me assume that Ignatius and his mother were black. I pictured him like Huell from “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul” due to his rotund obesity. It was only later in the novel that I realized he was white.

Excellent, comic voice acting Reginald D. Hunter

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The voice actor should have received an award for his characterisations of these New Orleans loony tunes. Never read a book like this before, it’s only comparable to something like the Hitchhiker’s Guide for sheer laugh out loud moments. Genius.

Incredible book, unique, hilarious

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this story was the most funny and sad at the same time story I listen in a while the protagonist is big jerk and kinda insane and everyone around him are jerks too but it make the the thing kinda funnier like Eric Cartman or those other jerk characters everyone love too hate the protagonist make the really sad moment in book little bit funnier but there are moments where it is just sad the narrator does wonderful job portraying the characters like the main character and his mother the story has those random monument where you can either bust out of laughter or feel really sad for the characters the book make you choose

the Funny the Sad the insane

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