A cast of grotesques make a compulsive tale, 14 Oct 2008
This is a brilliant novel, but one I found it difficult to enjoy. The author has assembled such a cast of grotesques, that you keep reading just to see what horrors will come out of their mouths, or what stupid things they'll do next. This is humour of the blackest kind, with scarcely anyone except the black guy Jones to have any sympathy for whatsoever.

But overshadowing all of the others is the gargantuan 30 year old figure of Ignatius J. Reilly - the most foul, flatulent, obese, workshy, total snob, and yet strangely eloquent anti-hero I've ever met. Together with his overprotective, dipso mother Irene, who never stops talking, they make a right pair.

The problems really start when Ignatius' mother backs into a balcony bringing a bill for damage that means her boy will have to go out to work. Ignatius' idea of work is rather different to anyone else's though, and very soon he's causing mayhem wherever he goes with his personal work ethic of doing as little as possible - he just carries on with his projects and tries to ignore or get rid of anything that might make him do any graft for anyone else at all if it doesn't fit in with his personal ends..

What makes this book doubly black is that the author committed suicide in 1969 after he couldn't get the book published. His mother kept up the campaign and it was finally published in 1980 going on to win the Pulitzer prize posthumously.

In summary, CoD is an influential book that I'm glad I've read, but will probably not pick up again.

Unique!, 05 Feb 2007
I love Ignatius! I love Walker Percy! AND I love this book!!!
I think it is unlike anything I have read before. I bought it on the recommendation of my brother (who has rarely steered me wrong) and it is now on my "keep for second read" shelf.
I could practically smell those hot dogs!!

Unlike Anything You've Ever Read Before, 23 Nov 2006
I'll admit, I usually don't read 'Pulitzer Prize' winning books, which are usually literary and often academic and 'nuanced' (which is another word for 'boring') -- so it came as some surprise for me to pick up a copy of this book and get sucked right in.

Frankly, this novel is like nothing I've ever read before; Ignatius, the main character, is described as a beast, with 'paws' and elephantine thighs, a misanthropic psuedo-intellectual loser who doesn't have a clue -- and who is finally forced to get a job by his doting but fed-up mom.

This is truly an outrageous book, full of broad strokes and over-the-top characters. Just a great hilarious slapstick riot. You'll laugh! It's really fun and subversive. And it's strange to come across a protagonist this strange. Talk about a misfit. You're both disgusted by Ignatius and morbidly fascinated by him. Really, it's a courageous novel. Don't let it scare you that some call this "literature." Kick back and have a good laugh. Call it a farce, call it satire, it's enjoyable once you give it a chance.





Unlike Anything You've Ever Read Before, 17 Aug 2005
I usually don't read 'Pulitzer Prize' winning books, which are usually literary and often academic and 'nuanced' (which is another word for 'boring') -- so it came as some surprise for me to pick up a copy of this book and get sucked right in. Frankly, this novel is like NOTHING I've ever read before; Ignatius, the main character, is described as a beast, with 'paws' and elephantine thighs, a misanthropic psuedo-intellectual loser who doesn't have a clue -- and who is finally forced to get a job by his doting but fed-up mum. This is truly an outrageous book, full of broad strokes and over-the-top characters. Just a great hilarious slapstick riot. You'll laugh! It's really fun! Other related, amusing books off Amazon I recommend: "The Fan Man" by William Kotzwinkle, and "The Losers Club" by Richard Perez

Hear me talkin' to ya!, 27 Sep 2004
Quite simply one of the funniest works of art ever, with one of the greatest and most grotesque central characters in all literature. Comes across like Proust writing a Monty Python film; absurd, absurdly clever and with its own rules and logic that seem somehow plausible after a few pages have been read, such is the compelling way this parallel dimension is described. Embarassingly, it will make you laugh out loud in public places weeks after you've finished it. Pan-genre satire of modern society or surreal laughathon of no fixed redress? Buy the one book and enjoy the best of both!

A cast of grotesques make a compulsive tale, 14 Oct 2008
This is a brilliant novel, but one I found it difficult to enjoy. The author has assembled such a cast of grotesques, that you keep reading just to see what horrors will come out of their mouths, or what stupid things they'll do next. This is humour of the blackest kind, with scarcely anyone except the black guy Jones to have any sympathy for whatsoever.

But overshadowing all of the others is the gargantuan 30 year old figure of Ignatius J. Reilly - the most foul, flatulent, obese, workshy, total snob, and yet strangely eloquent anti-hero I've ever met. Together with his overprotective, dipso mother Irene, who never stops talking, they make a right pair.

The problems really start when Ignatius' mother backs into a balcony bringing a bill for damage that means her boy will have to go out to work. Ignatius' idea of work is rather different to anyone else's though, and very soon he's causing mayhem wherever he goes with his personal work ethic of doing as little as possible - he just carries on with his projects and tries to ignore or get rid of anything that might make him do any graft for anyone else at all if it doesn't fit in with his personal ends..

What makes this book doubly black is that the author committed suicide in 1969 after he couldn't get the book published. His mother kept up the campaign and it was finally published in 1980 going on to win the Pulitzer prize posthumously.

In summary, CoD is an influential book that I'm glad I've read, but will probably not pick up again.

Unique!, 05 Feb 2007
I love Ignatius! I love Walker Percy! AND I love this book!!!
I think it is unlike anything I have read before. I bought it on the recommendation of my brother (who has rarely steered me wrong) and it is now on my "keep for second read" shelf.
I could practically smell those hot dogs!!

Unlike Anything You've Ever Read Before, 23 Nov 2006
I'll admit, I usually don't read 'Pulitzer Prize' winning books, which are usually literary and often academic and 'nuanced' (which is another word for 'boring') -- so it came as some surprise for me to pick up a copy of this book and get sucked right in.

Frankly, this novel is like nothing I've ever read before; Ignatius, the main character, is described as a beast, with 'paws' and elephantine thighs, a misanthropic psuedo-intellectual loser who doesn't have a clue -- and who is finally forced to get a job by his doting but fed-up mom.

This is truly an outrageous book, full of broad strokes and over-the-top characters. Just a great hilarious slapstick riot. You'll laugh! It's really fun and subversive. And it's strange to come across a protagonist this strange. Talk about a misfit. You're both disgusted by Ignatius and morbidly fascinated by him. Really, it's a courageous novel. Don't let it scare you that some call this "literature." Kick back and have a good laugh. Call it a farce, call it satire, it's enjoyable once you give it a chance.





Unlike Anything You've Ever Read Before, 17 Aug 2005
I usually don't read 'Pulitzer Prize' winning books, which are usually literary and often academic and 'nuanced' (which is another word for 'boring') -- so it came as some surprise for me to pick up a copy of this book and get sucked right in. Frankly, this novel is like NOTHING I've ever read before; Ignatius, the main character, is described as a beast, with 'paws' and elephantine thighs, a misanthropic psuedo-intellectual loser who doesn't have a clue -- and who is finally forced to get a job by his doting but fed-up mum. This is truly an outrageous book, full of broad strokes and over-the-top characters. Just a great hilarious slapstick riot. You'll laugh! It's really fun! Other related, amusing books off Amazon I recommend: "The Fan Man" by William Kotzwinkle, and "The Losers Club" by Richard Perez

Hear me talkin' to ya!, 27 Sep 2004
Quite simply one of the funniest works of art ever, with one of the greatest and most grotesque central characters in all literature. Comes across like Proust writing a Monty Python film; absurd, absurdly clever and with its own rules and logic that seem somehow plausible after a few pages have been read, such is the compelling way this parallel dimension is described. Embarassingly, it will make you laugh out loud in public places weeks after you've finished it. Pan-genre satire of modern society or surreal laughathon of no fixed redress? Buy the one book and enjoy the best of both!

Great, 21 Apr 2008
A very funny novel that perhaps was let dowbn in the last third when it went off tangent slightly. But all the same Igantius is a classic character that stays in the mind. There is talk of a film being made of this starring Jack Black. I don't know what to make of that but if if brings more people to the book that is good. Just a shame the author killed himself.

John Kennedy Toole was a literary genuis!, 04 Oct 2007
This is one of the best books I have ever read - it made me laugh out loud from page to page. I cannot understand how anyone could fail to be enthralled by the late John Kennedy Toole's wonderful story of very imperfect humanity. Readers will not end up liking the characters in the book, but will love the book itself.

Raw, brilliant and excoriatingly funny...a true work of genius, 02 Mar 2007
One-book authors are rare. Harper Lee with "To Kill a Mockingbird" is probably the most famous. John Kennedy Toole deserves just as much recognition and fame for his one-book wonder.

Like Harper Lee this is a unique portrait of the Deep South, specifically the customs, culture and history of New Orleans, a city that often appears to be so removed from the vastness of America. Sure, this book is not perfect...some scenes and characters appear flawed and jar with the flow of the book. But who cares when the writing is so energetic, kinetic and heart-stoppingly funny.

It's a book which will have you wanting to re-read the rants of one of the greatest comic creations (in Ignatius J. Reilly) over and over again. His mad ravings on the history of race relations in the South after speaking to the workers of Levy Pants and his subsequent efforts to lead them out of "slavery" is probably one of the greatest comic passages in modern literature. His later efforts to conquer the world with an army of homosexuals is just as brilliant.

In fact, scene after scene will have you stunned with the verve of his writing. What a shame he commited suicide after this book...a sequel is what this book deserves.


The best book I've ever read, 06 Dec 2006
I came upon this book through my geeky ways. I am a huge fan of Bill Hicks (American comedian). I read somewhere that this was his favourite book. I couldn't put the damn thing down. And, rather alarmingly, I noticed Ignatius is rather like my boyfriend. I have seen lent him the book and he agrees the comparison isn't very flattering. Cancel everything for a couple of days (and nights) and warn people you may laugh out loud uncontrollably.


A real comedy masterpiece, 14 Jul 2005
Having picked up numerous books over the years that have been dubbed 'comic masterpieces' and been disappointed, I was initially wary of 'A Confederacy...'
However, this scepticism had vanished within minutes.
Bawdy and gastronomical, this puts all other visions of the grotesque to shame (Money by Amis; Filth by Welsh; to name but two).
To an extent it falls into the category of disaffected American classic, alongside 'The Catcher in the Rye' and 'Herzog', but Toole's wit and ear for dialogue make 'A Confederacy...' the greatest American, and possibly greatest ever, novel.

A cast of grotesques make a compulsive tale, 14 Oct 2008
This is a brilliant novel, but one I found it difficult to enjoy. The author has assembled such a cast of grotesques, that you keep reading just to see what horrors will come out of their mouths, or what stupid things they'll do next. This is humour of the blackest kind, with scarcely anyone except the black guy Jones to have any sympathy for whatsoever.

But overshadowing all of the others is the gargantuan 30 year old figure of Ignatius J. Reilly - the most foul, flatulent, obese, workshy, total snob, and yet strangely eloquent anti-hero I've ever met. Together with his overprotective, dipso mother Irene, who never stops talking, they make a right pair.

The problems really start when Ignatius' mother backs into a balcony bringing a bill for damage that means her boy will have to go out to work. Ignatius' idea of work is rather different to anyone else's though, and very soon he's causing mayhem wherever he goes with his personal work ethic of doing as little as possible - he just carries on with his projects and tries to ignore or get rid of anything that might make him do any graft for anyone else at all if it doesn't fit in with his personal ends..

What makes this book doubly black is that the author committed suicide in 1969 after he couldn't get the book published. His mother kept up the campaign and it was finally published in 1980 going on to win the Pulitzer prize posthumously.

In summary, CoD is an influential book that I'm glad I've read, but will probably not pick up again.

Unique!, 05 Feb 2007
I love Ignatius! I love Walker Percy! AND I love this book!!!
I think it is unlike anything I have read before. I bought it on the recommendation of my brother (who has rarely steered me wrong) and it is now on my "keep for second read" shelf.
I could practically smell those hot dogs!!

Unlike Anything You've Ever Read Before, 23 Nov 2006
I'll admit, I usually don't read 'Pulitzer Prize' winning books, which are usually literary and often academic and 'nuanced' (which is another word for 'boring') -- so it came as some surprise for me to pick up a copy of this book and get sucked right in.

Frankly, this novel is like nothing I've ever read before; Ignatius, the main character, is described as a beast, with 'paws' and elephantine thighs, a misanthropic psuedo-intellectual loser who doesn't have a clue -- and who is finally forced to get a job by his doting but fed-up mom.

This is truly an outrageous book, full of broad strokes and over-the-top characters. Just a great hilarious slapstick riot. You'll laugh! It's really fun and subversive. And it's strange to come across a protagonist this strange. Talk about a misfit. You're both disgusted by Ignatius and morbidly fascinated by him. Really, it's a courageous novel. Don't let it scare you that some call this "literature." Kick back and have a good laugh. Call it a farce, call it satire, it's enjoyable once you give it a chance.





Unlike Anything You've Ever Read Before, 17 Aug 2005
I usually don't read 'Pulitzer Prize' winning books, which are usually literary and often academic and 'nuanced' (which is another word for 'boring') -- so it came as some surprise for me to pick up a copy of this book and get sucked right in. Frankly, this novel is like NOTHING I've ever read before; Ignatius, the main character, is described as a beast, with 'paws' and elephantine thighs, a misanthropic psuedo-intellectual loser who doesn't have a clue -- and who is finally forced to get a job by his doting but fed-up mum. This is truly an outrageous book, full of broad strokes and over-the-top characters. Just a great hilarious slapstick riot. You'll laugh! It's really fun! Other related, amusing books off Amazon I recommend: "The Fan Man" by William Kotzwinkle, and "The Losers Club" by Richard Perez

Hear me talkin' to ya!, 27 Sep 2004
Quite simply one of the funniest works of art ever, with one of the greatest and most grotesque central characters in all literature. Comes across like Proust writing a Monty Python film; absurd, absurdly clever and with its own rules and logic that seem somehow plausible after a few pages have been read, such is the compelling way this parallel dimension is described. Embarassingly, it will make you laugh out loud in public places weeks after you've finished it. Pan-genre satire of modern society or surreal laughathon of no fixed redress? Buy the one book and enjoy the best of both!

Great, 21 Apr 2008
A very funny novel that perhaps was let dowbn in the last third when it went off tangent slightly. But all the same Igantius is a classic character that stays in the mind. There is talk of a film being made of this starring Jack Black. I don't know what to make of that but if if brings more people to the book that is good. Just a shame the author killed himself.

John Kennedy Toole was a literary genuis!, 04 Oct 2007
This is one of the best books I have ever read - it made me laugh out loud from page to page. I cannot understand how anyone could fail to be enthralled by the late John Kennedy Toole's wonderful story of very imperfect humanity. Readers will not end up liking the characters in the book, but will love the book itself.

Raw, brilliant and excoriatingly funny...a true work of genius, 02 Mar 2007
One-book authors are rare. Harper Lee with "To Kill a Mockingbird" is probably the most famous. John Kennedy Toole deserves just as much recognition and fame for his one-book wonder.

Like Harper Lee this is a unique portrait of the Deep South, specifically the customs, culture and history of New Orleans, a city that often appears to be so removed from the vastness of America. Sure, this book is not perfect...some scenes and characters appear flawed and jar with the flow of the book. But who cares when the writing is so energetic, kinetic and heart-stoppingly funny.

It's a book which will have you wanting to re-read the rants of one of the greatest comic creations (in Ignatius J. Reilly) over and over again. His mad ravings on the history of race relations in the South after speaking to the workers of Levy Pants and his subsequent efforts to lead them out of "slavery" is probably one of the greatest comic passages in modern literature. His later efforts to conquer the world with an army of homosexuals is just as brilliant.

In fact, scene after scene will have you stunned with the verve of his writing. What a shame he commited suicide after this book...a sequel is what this book deserves.


The best book I've ever read, 06 Dec 2006
I came upon this book through my geeky ways. I am a huge fan of Bill Hicks (American comedian). I read somewhere that this was his favourite book. I couldn't put the damn thing down. And, rather alarmingly, I noticed Ignatius is rather like my boyfriend. I have seen lent him the book and he agrees the comparison isn't very flattering. Cancel everything for a couple of days (and nights) and warn people you may laugh out loud uncontrollably.


A real comedy masterpiece, 14 Jul 2005
Having picked up numerous books over the years that have been dubbed 'comic masterpieces' and been disappointed, I was initially wary of 'A Confederacy...'
However, this scepticism had vanished within minutes.
Bawdy and gastronomical, this puts all other visions of the grotesque to shame (Money by Amis; Filth by Welsh; to name but two).
To an extent it falls into the category of disaffected American classic, alongside 'The Catcher in the Rye' and 'Herzog', but Toole's wit and ear for dialogue make 'A Confederacy...' the greatest American, and possibly greatest ever, novel.

Understanding a gentleman's rage, 18 May 1999
Walker Percy immediately became my favorite author after I read this novel. I subsequently embarked on a quest to read every word the man had written. Percy presents the ultimate choice to any moral person living in this age: It will be Lancelot's way or Percival's. Find out which suits you . . .

Easy to read, difficult to digest ..., 14 Aug 1998
I can overlook that Percy basically stole Machado De Assis' "Don Casmurro," but only because the latter tackles such difficult issues, and is a VERY difficult read. And yet, Percy pulls it off. Just as we begin sympathizing with Lancelot, we're sprung forward again from our LAZ-E-BOY recliners and are reminded of the reality of his actions. I kinda wish Percy hadn't written the book in Second Person, as if WE were the therapist or something, but if THAT'S what it takes to reassure us that WE'RE not mad, so be it. A very uncomfortable, un-pretty, DISTURBING read -- worth the effort, but hard to recommend to anyone else.

A sympathetic portrayal of a man who goes mad...or does he?, 05 Aug 1998
Percy's flawless style plunges the reader, from the get go, into the hospital cell with the protagonist. His repetition serves to enhance the suspense of the novel's plot without frustrating the reader in the process. A powerful, accurate look at modern America, it should be recommended for any anyone feeling the least bit malcontent.

I hope no one's forgotten that Lancelot is a nutcase, 08 Jun 1998
Well, I can't deny that this is a great book, but it kind of worries me that certain other reviewers seem to be taking Lancelot's statements at face value...I mean, come on, the guy is a pretty awful person. Percy takes considerable pains to distance himself from the narrator, giving his name to Lance's audience and double (Perceval) instead.

Not that that madness diminishes the book. Lancelot's rants (which comprise the whole novel) are brilliant, though clearly mad; and the flashback nature of the plot lets Percy drop plenty of hints that something horrible has happened without giving away what it was (always a fun technique). The format of the book is an extended monologue, with Lance speaking to a silent Perceval. Some of the reminders of Perceval's physical presence (when Lance offers him a chair, for example, or reacts to something Perceval has supposedly said) can grow irritating, but they do build up to a wonderul ending. The Perceval of the grail legend remains silent too long, but that's a mistake he's not about to make twice.

Walker Percy only has two or three subjects he ever considers important enough to write about, and some readers might be sick of them by now, but Lancelot's madness gives Percy an opportunity to exaggerate and warp his usual themes till they look new again.

Savage and beautiful, 27 May 1998
This belongs in the highest tier of American fiction. Only Walker Percy could have distilled this masterpiece from the rotting Southern gentry and the moral rot of the life-is-just-a-movie generation. This suspenseful, funny, mesmerizing, brutalizing novel is the Love Song of Violent American Death that no Tarantino, no Stone, has ever come close to matching -- or ever will, because filmmakers who push the buttons of love and death are among the problems, the diseases, that Percy's Lancelot challenges to the joust. Read this and you will understand -- and shiver to understand -- the world's crusades. And possibly join one.

A cast of grotesques make a compulsive tale, 14 Oct 2008
This is a brilliant novel, but one I found it difficult to enjoy. The author has assembled such a cast of grotesques, that you keep reading just to see what horrors will come out of their mouths, or what stupid things they'll do next. This is humour of the blackest kind, with scarcely anyone except the black guy Jones to have any sympathy for whatsoever.

But overshadowing all of the others is the gargantuan 30 year old figure of Ignatius J. Reilly - the most foul, flatulent, obese, workshy, total snob, and yet strangely eloquent anti-hero I've ever met. Together with his overprotective, dipso mother Irene, who never stops talking, they make a right pair.

The problems really start when Ignatius' mother backs into a balcony bringing a bill for damage that means her boy will have to go out to work. Ignatius' idea of work is rather different to anyone else's though, and very soon he's causing mayhem wherever he goes with his personal work ethic of doing as little as possible - he just carries on with his projects and tries to ignore or get rid of anything that might make him do any graft for anyone else at all if it doesn't fit in with his personal ends..

What makes this book doubly black is that the author committed suicide in 1969 after he couldn't get the book published. His mother kept up the campaign and it was finally published in 1980 going on to win the Pulitzer prize posthumously.

In summary, CoD is an influential book that I'm glad I've read, but will probably not pick up again.

Unique!, 05 Feb 2007
I love Ignatius! I love Walker Percy! AND I love this book!!!
I think it is unlike anything I have read before. I bought it on the recommendation of my brother (who has rarely steered me wrong) and it is now on my "keep for second read" shelf.
I could practically smell those hot dogs!!

Unlike Anything You've Ever Read Before, 23 Nov 2006
I'll admit, I usually don't read 'Pulitzer Prize' winning books, which are usually literary and often academic and 'nuanced' (which is another word for 'boring') -- so it came as some surprise for me to pick up a copy of this book and get sucked right in.

Frankly, this novel is like nothing I've ever read before; Ignatius, the main character, is described as a beast, with 'paws' and elephantine thighs, a misanthropic psuedo-intellectual loser who doesn't have a clue -- and who is finally forced to get a job by his doting but fed-up mom.

This is truly an outrageous book, full of broad strokes and over-the-top characters. Just a great hilarious slapstick riot. You'll laugh! It's really fun and subversive. And it's strange to come across a protagonist this strange. Talk about a misfit. You're both disgusted by Ignatius and morbidly fascinated by him. Really, it's a courageous novel. Don't let it scare you that some call this "literature." Kick back and have a good laugh. Call it a farce, call it satire, it's enjoyable once you give it a chance.





Unlike Anything You've Ever Read Before, 17 Aug 2005
I usually don't read 'Pulitzer Prize' winning books, which are usually literary and often academic and 'nuanced' (which is another word for 'boring') -- so it came as some surprise for me to pick up a copy of this book and get sucked right in. Frankly, this novel is like NOTHING I've ever read before; Ignatius, the main character, is described as a beast, with 'paws' and elephantine thighs, a misanthropic psuedo-intellectual loser who doesn't have a clue -- and who is finally forced to get a job by his doting but fed-up mum. This is truly an outrageous book, full of broad strokes and over-the-top characters. Just a great hilarious slapstick riot. You'll laugh! It's really fun! Other related, amusing books off Amazon I recommend: "The Fan Man" by William Kotzwinkle, and "The Losers Club" by Richard Perez

Hear me talkin' to ya!, 27 Sep 2004
Quite simply one of the funniest works of art ever, with one of the greatest and most grotesque central characters in all literature. Comes across like Proust writing a Monty Python film; absurd, absurdly clever and with its own rules and logic that seem somehow plausible after a few pages have been read, such is the compelling way this parallel dimension is described. Embarassingly, it will make you laugh out loud in public places weeks after you've finished it. Pan-genre satire of modern society or surreal laughathon of no fixed redress? Buy the one book and enjoy the best of both!

Great, 21 Apr 2008
A very funny novel that perhaps was let dowbn in the last third when it went off tangent slightly. But all the same Igantius is a classic character that stays in the mind. There is talk of a film being made of this starring Jack Black. I don't know what to make of that but if if brings more people to the book that is good. Just a shame the author killed himself.

John Kennedy Toole was a literary genuis!, 04 Oct 2007
This is one of the best books I have ever read - it made me laugh out loud from page to page. I cannot understand how anyone could fail to be enthralled by the late John Kennedy Toole's wonderful story of very imperfect humanity. Readers will not end up liking the characters in the book, but will love the book itself.

Raw, brilliant and excoriatingly funny...a true work of genius, 02 Mar 2007
One-book authors are rare. Harper Lee with "To Kill a Mockingbird" is probably the most famous. John Kennedy Toole deserves just as much recognition and fame for his one-book wonder.

Like Harper Lee this is a unique portrait of the Deep South, specifically the customs, culture and history of New Orleans, a city that often appears to be so removed from the vastness of America. Sure, this book is not perfect...some scenes and characters appear flawed and jar with the flow of the book. But who cares when the writing is so energetic, kinetic and heart-stoppingly funny.

It's a book which will have you wanting to re-read the rants of one of the greatest comic creations (in Ignatius J. Reilly) over and over again. His mad ravings on the history of race relations in the South after speaking to the workers of Levy Pants and his subsequent efforts to lead them out of "slavery" is probably one of the greatest comic passages in modern literature. His later efforts to conquer the world with an army of homosexuals is just as brilliant.

In fact, scene after scene will have you stunned with the verve of his writing. What a shame he commited suicide after this book...a sequel is what this book deserves.


The best book I've ever read, 06 Dec 2006
I came upon this book through my geeky ways. I am a huge fan of Bill Hicks (American comedian). I read somewhere that this was his favourite book. I couldn't put the damn thing down. And, rather alarmingly, I noticed Ignatius is rather like my boyfriend. I have seen lent him the book and he agrees the comparison isn't very flattering. Cancel everything for a couple of days (and nights) and warn people you may laugh out loud uncontrollably.


A real comedy masterpiece, 14 Jul 2005
Having picked up numerous books over the years that have been dubbed 'comic masterpieces' and been disappointed, I was initially wary of 'A Confederacy...'
However, this scepticism had vanished within minutes.
Bawdy and gastronomical, this puts all other visions of the grotesque to shame (Money by Amis; Filth by Welsh; to name but two).
To an extent it falls into the category of disaffected American classic, alongside 'The Catcher in the Rye' and 'Herzog', but Toole's wit and ear for dialogue make 'A Confederacy...' the greatest American, and possibly greatest ever, novel.

Understanding a gentleman's rage, 18 May 1999
Walker Percy immediately became my favorite author after I read this novel. I subsequently embarked on a quest to read every word the man had written. Percy presents the ultimate choice to any moral person living in this age: It will be Lancelot's way or Percival's. Find out which suits you . . .

Easy to read, difficult to digest ..., 14 Aug 1998
I can overlook that Percy basically stole Machado De Assis' "Don Casmurro," but only because the latter tackles such difficult issues, and is a VERY difficult read. And yet, Percy pulls it off. Just as we begin sympathizing with Lancelot, we're sprung forward again from our LAZ-E-BOY recliners and are reminded of the reality of his actions. I kinda wish Percy hadn't written the book in Second Person, as if WE were the therapist or something, but if THAT'S what it takes to reassure us that WE'RE not mad, so be it. A very uncomfortable, un-pretty, DISTURBING read -- worth the effort, but hard to recommend to anyone else.

A sympathetic portrayal of a man who goes mad...or does he?, 05 Aug 1998
Percy's flawless style plunges the reader, from the get go, into the hospital cell with the protagonist. His repetition serves to enhance the suspense of the novel's plot without frustrating the reader in the process. A powerful, accurate look at modern America, it should be recommended for any anyone feeling the least bit malcontent.

I hope no one's forgotten that Lancelot is a nutcase, 08 Jun 1998
Well, I can't deny that this is a great book, but it kind of worries me that certain other reviewers seem to be taking Lancelot's statements at face value...I mean, come on, the guy is a pretty awful person. Percy takes considerable pains to distance himself from the narrator, giving his name to Lance's audience and double (Perceval) instead.

Not that that madness diminishes the book. Lancelot's rants (which comprise the whole novel) are brilliant, though clearly mad; and the flashback nature of the plot lets Percy drop plenty of hints that something horrible has happened without giving away what it was (always a fun technique). The format of the book is an extended monologue, with Lance speaking to a silent Perceval. Some of the reminders of Perceval's physical presence (when Lance offers him a chair, for example, or reacts to something Perceval has supposedly said) can grow irritating, but they do build up to a wonderul ending. The Perceval of the grail legend remains silent too long, but that's a mistake he's not about to make twice.

Walker Percy only has two or three subjects he ever considers important enough to write about, and some readers might be sick of them by now, but Lancelot's madness gives Percy an opportunity to exaggerate and warp his usual themes till they look new again.

Savage and beautiful, 27 May 1998
This belongs in the highest tier of American fiction. Only Walker Percy could have distilled this masterpiece from the rotting Southern gentry and the moral rot of the life-is-just-a-movie generation. This suspenseful, funny, mesmerizing, brutalizing novel is the Love Song of Violent American Death that no Tarantino, no Stone, has ever come close to matching -- or ever will, because filmmakers who push the buttons of love and death are among the problems, the diseases, that Percy's Lancelot challenges to the joust. Read this and you will understand -- and shiver to understand -- the world's crusades. And possibly join one.

Percy's Unique views on the South, Religion and Literature, 25 Mar 2001
Sign Posts in A Strange Land is a collection of Walker Percy's previously uncollected essays brought together in an accesible arrangement by editor and Percy biographer Patrick Samway. Percy's views on the South, bourbn, the Civil War and Flannery O'Connor are reminiscent of a southern writer, southern writer who muses about being a southern writer and southern. Percy is a humble writer with many bold comments. At one point to remembers his Uncle Will for a Southern Review and in another article for the Times he condemns Abortion. He is a wayfarer. He is a gentle doctor (He's a MD) with versatility and mirth who sees problems in modernity and gives a diagnosis, not a harsh clinical one, but a gentle diagnosis, always keeping a positive viewpoint on humanity. For those only familiar with Percy's novels (The Moviegoer, the Thanatos Syndrome, etc) will find these essays revealing into the man, Walker Percy, who was able to write about a wide breath of ideas and topics in a clear, insightful way -- and often very funny. His self-interview is vintage Percy -- the questions no one ever asked him! He answers with a wit that will make you laugh but also invite you to look into yourself -- that predicament you've been trying to understand for awhile now. Percy is a Message Bearer -- but not one who stuffs a message down your throat, but one who places his message in a bottle and perhaps one of the castaways will pick it up, like yourself, read it, and see it as news from across the seas. I recommend this book for anyone who has read some of Percy novels and would like to get to know this thinker -- a thinker that has much to offer to a tired and weary generation -- a people who have difficulty living until Wednesday, and really do not know why. If you want to laugh at the "weirdness" of the self -- then I think you should pick up Sign Post in a Strange Land. IF not only getting a good recipie for bourbon, you may also get a gentle message from a writer who the Modern Library named as one of the top one hundred novelists of the Century in the English Language.