Confederacy of Dunces

Hi All, and welcome to La Mademoiselle, our newest BC member. El Jefe knows you've all been waiting with bated breath for the recap, which is a few days late this time as I was up in beautiful Carmel-by-the-Sea this weekend sans computer. Thanks to The Tiger for hosting in her fab new home. El Jefe is psyched you had the patio table in place--a big fan of the outdoor BC! We feasted on cheese and salami for apps, then had a delish taco dinner with The Tiger's killer guacamole, and finished off with a dessert from our favorite BC baker, Logan's Run. El Jefe is kind of regretting not taking a doggie bag home. If only Logan's Run had convinced me!! Tiger, can you send the name of the secret ingredient for your chicken, thanks!

Now we must recount a truly historic moment: the first 10 rating in BC history! Yes, you heard me correctly. Confederacy of Dunces scored a 10.

Overall, it had fairly high ratings from everyone else as well, the lowest being a 6 or 6-1/2. The overwhelming comment was that the book was damn funny, although only about half of us admitted to actually laughing out loud (El Jefe was certainly in that group!). Also, the book got praise across the board for it's fantastic character development. There were a few votes for Jones as favorite character, although the Highlander (inexplicably ;) ) liked Gus Levy. What little substantive book discussion (see post script below) we had centered around the question of whether Ignatius J. Reilly was a veritable looney, or whether he was just a misunderstood intellectual and nonconformist. He definitely got strong reactions from everyone, who seemed to love him or be repulsed by him. El Jefe had to leave a bit early to do some work and tend to electrical outages back at the money pit (I mean, Chez Jefe), but folks, did we ever reach a consensus on whether Reilly was a B.K. Troop rip-off or not?

Speaking of B.K. Troop, our next book is Miss Lonleyhearts/Day of the Locusts, two novels by Nathanael West, which was recommended by our author friend Allison Burnett. The meeting will be at Logans Run's house, directions to follow.