What I'm Reading #5

The cover of this book has been around in poster form for awhile now and lead to a mild debate between myself and The Quiet Man- I swear that this cover (posterized, of course) was hanging in the old Newslab in City High back in the day.  (I see on Facebook they've been up to some renovations and have upgraded to Macs- I'm sort of depressed about that.  I became somewhat attached to the shiteous PC I used for editing my junior/senior year.)  Anyway-  The Quiet Man thought it was another poster- and I will admit that he probably remembers it better than I do.  (And I'm willing to concede this might have been in an English classroom somewhere in high school as well- or it probably showed up as a vague pop culture reference in an episode of Gilmore Girls and got stuck in my brain somehow.)

But anyway!

I have plunged into the depths of A Confederacy of Dunces and to be honest, I'm not entirely sure it's living up to it's hype just yet.  The Pulitzer Price winning classic by John Kennedy Toole is packed with praise from the usual sources, promising that this will be the 'funniest book ever written' and hailing it as an 'American comic masterpiece.'  One hundred and eighteen pages into this book though and I'm not sure I'm convinced yet.   Don't get me wrong:  Ignatius J. Reilly is one of the more unique characters I've stumbled across in literature and it's obvious that the setting, New Orleans is as integral to the narrative as the cast of unique and memorable characters.

But comic masterpiece?  I've stumbled across a few things that have drawn smiles and a chuckle or two, but belly laughs?  Laughing so hard that I need to go and pee?  Not so much- not yet anyway.  Which makes me wonder if this book won't live up to 'the comic masterpiece hype.'  Ignatius, as a character is interesting and funny at times, thanks to his cluelessness and general inability to handle modern life, thus far, but he's a difficult character.  And sort of a pain in the ass.

I'm going to have to dig in and put my shoulder to this book, I think- it's becoming more and more of a slog and I really want to see if it lives up to the hype.