A Confederacy of Dunces & A Confederacy of Dunces Cookbook: Reviewed by Dale Julian
Photography by Savannah Jane
John Kennedy Toole’s comic novel, A Confederacy of Dunces, written in 1963 but not published until 1980, is my favorite book of all times. I read it soon after it came out, as it was recommended by my University of Connecticut roommate and fellow English major, Barbara. It was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1981for Toole posthumously. Despite almost total ignorance about any place south of Ohio, I knew funny when I read it. The situations were farcical and the political incorrectness was on an epic scale. The characters ranged from eccentric, to shady, to kooky.
Ignatius J. Reilly, age 30, slovenly, overeducated, and work-adverse, lives with his overprotective widowed mother in a tiny New Orleans shotgun-style house. He pens indignant rants against modern civilization and obsesses over the state of his bowels. When Mother wrecks the family car, Ignatius reluctantly embarks upon a series of disastrous jobs, which he chronicles in his “Journal of a Working Boy, or, Up from Sloth.”
I’ve read Confederacy of Dunces three times and Barbara and I frequently dip into it for a few laughs. It is marvelous that such a fatuous dolt somehow gains our sympathy, even as we groan over each new atrocity he commits. If you haven’t read it yourself, please do. You, too, will root for Ignatius’ great escape from New Orleans (and his involuntary incarceration in a mental hospital), dressed in a pirate scarf and brandishing a cutlass, in a getaway car piloted by erstwhile girlfriend Myrna Minkoff.
Thirty-five years later, when LSU Press rolled out A Confederacy of Dunces Cookbook by Cynthia LeJeune Nobles, I was worried it would be a parody. Happily, Noble’s Cookbook is a thoughtful, fun-to-read exploration of the Crescent City’s rich food culture, as viewed through the lens of Toole’s masterpiece. Nobles, author of The ‘Delta Queen’ Cookbook and editor for the Southern Table cookbook series, is clearly an Ignatius fan as well as a foodie. Her new book deserves a place on the shelf next to Toole’s original.
Nobles’ book is replete with recipes for the toothsome dishes immortalized in Dunces and is generously illustrated with photos of landmarks such as the D.H. Holmes Department Store and Fazzio’s Bowling Alley. It is filled with memorable writing on jelly doughnuts, “potatis [sic] salad,” and Dixie 45 Beer. Chapters like “In the Kitchen with Irene Reilly,” “Santa Battaglia, or How to Cook Like a Sicilian,” and “Party Like It’s 1960” remind me how brilliantly Toole depicted his characters and their world through food. The book’s cover art, a portrait of our working boy composed entirely of foodstuffs, is wonderful!
A local Apalachicola book club recently chose A Confederacy of Dunces Cookbook as its book of the month. The inspired hostess of the club event organized a potluck of dishes prepared from the cookbook to accompany the book talk, an excellent way to enjoy the book.
About Dale Julian
Dale Julian owns Downtown Books and Purl in Apalachicola. She is an avid reader, an enthusiastic knitter, and a lifelong birdwatcher. After a career with the Connecticut State Library’s Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped and the University of Connecticut Library, she and her husband Michael moved to Paradise, Arizona (population nine) and established the George Walker House. This guesthouse for birders had 13 species of hummingbirds as yard birds. Dale spent many hours each day filling sugar water feeders in addition to her duties as hostess, chambermaid, and birding guide. The Julians loved the Chiricahua Mountains but missed the ocean, so they moved to the Florida Panhandle in 2002 and here they will stay. Like Ignatius, Dale once worked in a factory. Unlike him, she has never sold hot dogs from a cart.