A Confederacy of Dunces

John Kennedy Toole

Dec 1997 · Blackstone Audio Inc. · Narrated by Barrett Whitener

About this audiobook

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize

“A masterwork . . . the novel astonishes with its inventiveness . . . it is nothing less than a grand comic fugue.”—The New York Times Book Review

A green hunting cap squeezed the top of the fleshy balloon of a head. The green earflaps, full of large ears and uncut hair and the fine bristles that grew in the ears themselves, stuck out on either side like turn signals indicating two directions at once. Full, pursed lips protruded beneath the bushy black moustache and, at their corners, sank into little folds filled with disapproval and potato chip crumbs.

So enters one of the most memorable characters in recent American fiction.

The hero of John Kennedy Toole's incomparable, Pultizer Prize–winning comic classic is one Ignatius J. Reilly, an obese, self-absorbed, hapless Don Quixote of the French Quarter, whose half-hearted attempts at employment lead to a series of wacky adventures among the lower denizens of New Orleans. This book has become an American comic masterpiece.

Ratings and reviews

Myself and my husband both read this book many years ago and to this day we still refer to Ignatius J. Reilly in certain situation and laugh (sometimes out loud). When a writer has done this in a story, they have reached beyond the limits of the written word into the psyche.

Truly lightning in a bottle. I can understand how this book wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea, but I enjoyed every second of it. It follows a cast of entirely dreadful people who manage to be both caricature and realistic at the same time. If you have a darker sense of humor, can take an offensive joke, and enjoy absurdity, this is certainly the book for you. It is an absolute tragedy what happened to the author but I hope he would he proud of the affection people have for his work. The audio book was well done and the reader did an excellent job capturing the sound of New Orleans. The only misgiving I have is that it seems a little uncomfortable to have a White narrator read in a Black vernacular for the character of Jones. I don't think the intent was to be disrespectful in any kind of way but it was awkward.

An absolute delight. The story is brilliant and the narrator of this audiobook is masterful - I laughed aloud repeatedly.

About the author

John Kennedy Toole (1937–1969), a native of New Orleans, graduated from Tulane University and received a master’s degree in English from Columbia University. He taught at Hunter College, the University of Southwestern Louisiana, and Dominican College in New Orleans. After his death, his book A Confederacy of Dunceswas awarded the Pulizer Prize in Fiction in 1981.

Walker Percy (1916–1990) was the author of nine books of fiction and nonfiction, including the award-winning The Moviegoer and the New York Times bestsellers The Thanatos Syndrome, Love in the Ruins, and The Second Coming. He is considered one of the greatest American writers of the twentieth century. He went to medical school, intending to be a psychiatrist, until he had a bout with tuberculosis. He married and converted to Catholicism. He became a writer, and his first novel, The Moviegoer, won the National Book Award and has never been out of print.

Barrett Whitener has been narrating audiobooks since 1992. His recordings have won several awards, including the prestigious Audie Award and numerous Earphones Awards. AudioFile magazine has named him one of the Best Voices of the Century.