A Confederacy of Dunces (1980) by John Kennedy Toole

Tristan’s ‘The Big Easy?’ themed choices

Celebrity Squares

Our first Zoom-enabled meeting as the UK, along with much of the rest of the world, grapples with Covid 19, and is in a state of lockdown. Remarkably successful it was too.

Tristan had chosen A Confederacy of Dunces to stimulate our minds but how would the hard bitten and cynical HBG react?

 Reading: A Confederacy of Dunces (1980) by John Kennedy Toole

Tristan shocked his fellow members by stating he had only read half the book. These are trying times so we cut him a bit of slack. He enjoyed what he had read so far, especially central character Ignatius J Reilly who is full of hubris and pomposity.

Nigel tried to read this book decades ago gave up after about 20 pages. Would a second attempt yield a better outcome? It was a resounding “Yes”. What a blast. Laughs aplenty. Superbly quotable. He bloody loved it

Keith appreciates a picaresque novel and so enjoyed this beaut

Robin is busier than ever and found it hard to concentrate on anything. He managed a few pages before shrugging and going back to his busy life

Roland was also too challenged to properly focus on a book he described as “particularly difficult” 

Nick was not totally convinced but could understand why so many people cite is as their favourite novel - say hello Billy Connolly

Hamish nearly bought it for his brother and was glad he hadn’t. “No story, no laughs” he opined

Ignatius J Reilly is one of the great literary creations. Indeed, A Confederacy of Dunces abounds with wonderful characters, all of whom are, in some way, sucked into the orbit of Ignatius and his lunatic behaviour

There are some wonderful comedic set pieces here however the real joy lies in the writing and the dialogue from, most especially, Ignatius who disdains many aspects of modernity and spends his life expressing outrage in the most amusing and unforgettable terms

In addition to the fabulous characters, wonderful writing and guffaw inducing dialogue, the book's setting - New Orleans - is also powerfully evoked

But not everyone agreed with that summary as the scores below aptly demonstrate

#schism #differenceofopinion #noaccountingfortaste

Top triv: A Confederacy of Dunces would never have been published if John Kennedy Toole's mother had not found a smeared carbon copy of the manuscript left in the house following Toole's 1969 suicide, at 31

Nick 7 / Tristan 7 / Nigel 10 / Keith 7 / Roland 5 / Robin 4 / Hamish 0



Listening: Tristan’s The Big Easy playlist

Tristan’s playlist was well received by the HBG

Big Frieda, Kermit Ruffins, and EyeHateGod came in for particular praise


Watching: Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) dir by Benh Zeitlin 

Robin and Roland share a moment

Tristan described 'Beasts of the Southern Wild’ as weird and quirky. We all agreed the amateur cast, especially the five year old child and her father, were incredible. Roland was less convinced by what he had seen but, there was no denying, the wonderful imagination and brio on display. 

A perfect accompaniment to the book and the music



Endorse it 

The Yorkshire Ripper Files: A Very British Crime Story (BBC iPlayer)
Murder 24/7 (BBC iPlayer)
The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel (Book)
Booksmart (Film on Amazon Prime)

Tim Burgess - online album party - see Twitter for more info

Late Junctions (BBC Radio 3)

Unclassified (BBC Radio 3)

Ozark (Netflix series)

Joker (Film)

Aubrey Beardsley doc by Mark Gattis on iPlayer

Jon Hopkins live at Brighton Dome

The Place Beyond the Pines (film on iPlayer)

Birdman (film)

Chris Packham (podcast)

Next time

Keith has decreed that we will be discussing….

Theme: Pandemics? The Plague? Coronavirus?

Reading: The Plague (1947) by Albert Camus
Listening: What Did You Expect From The Vaccines (2011) by The Vaccines
Watching: Contagion (2011) dir by Steven Soderbergh