笨伯之联盟

Title: A Conferacy of Dunces
Author: Tools, John Kenney (1937 - 1969)
Baton Rouge : Louisiana State University Press, 2000, c1980
xiii, 394 p. ; 24 cm
Read by 06/05/2010, borrowed from WBPL, later acquired one into my own collection


I sought out this book to get more of American humor after reading The Early Bird. My hubby thought it would be a good idea to learn about humors, he urged me to search online. This title was claimed to be the “masterpiece of humor novels”. Checked it out from our public library, I started as a “proof reader”. One third through, I knew I would be the only reader in the family, he and the rest wouldn’t finish one fifth because they are not yet ready to appreciate the language and the character development:-) Frankly, it took me four times longer than with other regular books. I am not surprised this book didn’t hit as a bestseller, regardless its literary success.

I would not mark the book as funny, comic, not even humorous. Every character is in a way smart or nice, however every one of them appears stupid other times. Ignatius Jacques Reilly, a self assumed intelligent and loner of the modern society, an American version of fat Don Quixote, distains pop culture and people around, including his mother. His self importance for his ideas and moves only ends himself with miserable failure everywhere, blaming others. Indeed, everyone around him are dunces: Myrna Minkoff (his once girlfriend, an extension of him matter of fact), Irene Reilly (a mother with drinking problem), Angelo Mancuso (an inept police officer who arrested Ignatius for his fat green hat), Burma Jones (a once jobless black, then the lazy porter/janitor for the "Night Of Joy"), Gus Levy (the owner of Levy Pants who never manages his business), Mrs. Levy (Gus’s wife whose goal is to make her husband’s life miserable and make miserable Miss Trixie’s life a success of her psychoanalysis), Miss Trixie (an aged clerk at the Levy Pants who did nothing but snoring in office), Mr. Gonzalez (the office manager at Levy Pants, meek and skittish in demeanor), and many more. What is absurd is Ignatius thinks they are in a confederacy against him. Jonathan Swift once wrote "When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him", from which the book derives its title. This book is considered by me as a practical joke on every one of us. Aren’t we a lot of times heroes in our minds but failures in reality? Face it!

The author is a master of English language. He won the Pulitzer prize in 1981, 12 years after his suicide. The book got discovered and published 11 years after the tragic death, pushed by the author’s mother and then writer Walker Percy. Bravo!