It seems I’m really narrowing down the life of retirement. As I take one book back to the library today, another catches my eye. And although I’d resolved to kick off a new holiday tradition — that is, to settle down with a nice egg nog and whisky every evening and read the delightful book The Expedition of Humphry Clinker over the next few weeks — I’m stuck with a shiny new book instead.
Oh well, it can’t be helped. John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces demanded my attention.
I’ve already been partway through the book in audio form. Not quite halfway, actually, and it hasn’t really taken off with me. I suppose the narrator is good in his own right — I mean, they don’t hire just anyone. And yet, I don’t really like his “interpretation” of the characters. His narration of the story’s protagonist in particular is kind of bombastic and off-putting, even though the character is indeed supposed to be bombastic to the comedic extreme. Still, I think I prefer my own voice here — my own interpretation. I love audio books, but sometimes I just need to provide all of the imagination myself — to include how I feel the characters sound.
I’ve read through much of the first chapter and I think I’m right on this. I knew the book was funny. Reading it for myself is making it more so. It really is easier to follow and to envision without a narrator.
And the history of the book is also quite fascinating. A Confederacy of Dunces is unique in that it was written in the ’60s, but not published until 1980, 11 years after its author’s death by suicide. Toole’s mother had the manuscript — a smeared carbon copy — and took it to publishers who rejected repeatedly until she convinced author and teacher Walker Percy to read it. He did so reluctantly, but enjoyed it so much that he did press for its publication. As an additional bonus, it won the Pulitzer Prize in 1981 (so this’ll be the fourth straight Pulitzer winner I’m reading). I’m sure Clinker would have contended, had there been a Pulitzer Prize in 1770, but this will do just fine for now.
In the end, I could very well still get back to the Humphry’s expedition — I’m often reading three books at a time anyway — but if I don’t, the egg nog will do just fine with this one…
