Set in New Orleans in the 1960s, John Kennedy Toole’s comic novel follows the fortunes of 30-year-old Ignatius J Reilly, a slovenly, flatulent scholar of medievalism who still lives with his mother, Irene. Reilly is unemployed and spends most of his days holed up in his bedroom, either contemplating (rarely writing) his literary opus or masturbating, using the memory of a long-dead pet collie to get him in the mood.
Toole, who killed himself in 1969 aged 31, wrote A Confederacy of Dunces while doing national service in Puerto Rico in the early 1960s. The book was turned down by successive editors including Robert Gottlieb who, in a letter to the author, wrote that it was “a brilliant exercise in invention … [but] it isn’t really about anything”. After Toole’s death his mother, Thelma, found the manuscript and resolved to get it published. It eventually came out in 1980, became a bestseller, and won Toole a Pulitzer prize.
The comic narrator Reginald D Hunter brings new life to a reprobate cast of characters: the cantankerous Claude Robichaux, who believes everyone to be a communist; the doltish police officer, Mancuso, who is the butt of all jokes at his precinct; and the put-upon Irene, who seeks solace in the wine she keeps hidden in the stove. But none compare to the pompous, booming Ignatius, always expostulating about a world he believes has lost its values while overlooking his own idleness. Asked by Mancuso about his lack of employment, he replies, haughtily: “When my brain begins to reel from my literary labours, I make an occasional cheese dip.”
• A Confederacy of Dunces is available via Penguin Audio, 12hr 58min
Further listening
Run Towards the Danger
Sarah Polley, WF Howes, 7hr 56min
The actor, screenwriter and director narrates a series of autobiographical essays on illness, bereavement and the trauma of starring in Terry Gilliam’s The Adventures of Baron Munchausen at the age of eight.
The Confession
Jessie Burton, Macmillan, 11hr 53min
This tale about a reclusive novelist and her young amanuensis, from the author of The Miniaturist, is read by the actor Hayley Atwell.
