Confederacy of Dunces was met with mixed reviews last night. A couple of us absolutely loved it and thought it was the funniest book we had ever read, a couple of hated it and weren't sure it was worth finishing, and a couple of us thought it was weird but slogged through in order to participate in the conversation. That dynamic makes for animated discussion, and lively it was.Jenny and Jeanette found the unappealing characters overwhelmed their ability to enjoy the writing; Maureen wouldn't have chosen it were it not for book group; Leslie, Cathy and Dawn loved it - Dawn thought Ignatius exhibited characteristics of Aspergers' Syndrome, an interesting perspective; Carolyn said she didn't like it until it was over. As for me, I was very surprised to enjoy this quirky book, so much so that I laughed out loud.
We did agree, however, that Toole had brilliantly crafted his characters and deftly wove them together to create a pace in a story that really had little plot, ending with the "hero" riding off into the sunset. While the story needed the New Orleans setting, Leslie felt that it didn't really represent New Orleans - at least as it was then.
We will be reading Geraldine Brook's People of the Book for our July 7th meeting, which I'm sure you remember will begin our daytime schedule of 11:00 on the second Tuesday of the month. Because another group is also reading the book, it may be another week or two before a copy gets checked in. I know that Caroline still needs a copy of the book and I don't know who else.
Your (nearly retired) book group facilitator,
Sharon
