Greetings, colleagues. Shortly after 9/11, driving to school and feeling somewhat
overcome by anxiety, I found myself thinking (I kid you not) "Tough times call for
a funny book. What was that funny book I read? It cured my Mom of pneumonia
several times. What was that book? It won the Pulitzer Prize. What was that
book?" Wracking my brain. Then, the school day intruded, and I kind of forgot
about it. That night, at hockey, I was sitting in the warm room, reading some dumb
mystery, and there was one man in the room with me, looking through the window at
practice. What are you reading? he asks me. Some dumb mystery, I replied. Say
(says he, you have to believe me, God's honest truth) have you ever read A
Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole?
I almost fell off of the bench. Still haven't quite figured out how come he said
that, but he proceeded to tell me that he had a friend who had lost a leg in a
motorcycle accident, and he wasn't shaking his depression. The hockey Dad bought
his friend the book, and it worked its magic on him, too.
It's a crazy book but you find yourself laughing out loud.
Toole killed himself before the book was published. His mom took that somewhat
scrambled stack of papers to Walker Percy to get his opinion. He read it, somewhat
reluctantly at first, and found that he loved it. Eventually, Nobel Prize.
Some people love it, some hate it. The coincidences go on and on, but this is
already too long!
Elizabeth Kamke Librarian St. Joseph's Collegiate Inst.
845 Kenmore Avenue Buffalo, NY 14223 eksk476@aol.com
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