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A Confederacy of Dunces  By  cover art

A Confederacy of Dunces

By: John Kennedy Toole
Narrated by: Barrett Whitener
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Publisher's summary

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.

©1980 Thelma D. Toole (P)1997 Blackstone Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"Barrett Whitener strikes just the right note." (AudioFile)
"A Confederacy of Dunces has been reviewed almost everywhere, and every reviewer has loved it. For once, everyone is right." (Rolling Stone)
"What a delight, what a roaring, rollicking, footstomping wonder this book is! I laughed until my sides ached, and then I laughed on." (Chicago Sun-Times)

What listeners say about A Confederacy of Dunces

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Exceptional reading of a classic

I listened to this audio edition over 30 years after reading the book. The narrator brought out the voices and character of the characters, and the book is full of true characters. Toole created a rich masterpiece.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Exceptional satire

Hilarious and brilliant. A scathing take down of the faux intelligence, and spoiled youth of America. I loved it!

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Annoying

Kept waiting for it to get better and then it was over. Do not recommend

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A wonderful fun time insight into some characters

Enjoyed the narration, I wonder if i would have liked it reading it myself. Loved the simple, fun, eclectic story.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Narration Fail

This is my favorite book and it's a horrible shame that this narrator was cast to record it.

I can only pray someone re records it.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Hilarious

it was a very fun listen, I would definitely recommend, great book and performance.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Hilarious book.

Ignatius is a genius, but only he (and I guess maybe Myrna) know it. I wish John Kennedy Toole was still with us.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Ignatius J

What a guy, not a lot like him with that wonderful of an inner life

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Cringeworthy narration, Brilliant story.

I've always loved this story, but the narration had me pulling my hair out after the first twenty minutes. The jokes are timed clumsily, the accents are awkward, and the pacing is off. Like Ignatius himself, this book rolls along with its own peculiar momentum, but this narration trips up at every turn. I waited a long time for this to appear on Audible; now that it has, I'm very disappointed. Please, please, powers that be, bring this wonderful book around again on Fortune's wheel and give it a new narration the second time around!

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50 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Narration HORRIBLE

Was there no one in the city of New Orleans qualified to provide narration for this wonderful book? As a native New Orleanian, I found not ONE of the characters to have an authentic accent of any social strata in the city. This is one of my favorite books of all time, and I must have been out of my mind to get the audio version, knowing that the accents might have been botched so badly. And his mispronunciation of place names was just salt in the wound.

Please people, get the hardcover version, and try your best to forget what you just heard. As Ignatius would say, " Oh my GAWD!"

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44 people found this helpful