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Fats

While Santa put a Fats Domino record on the phonograph, Angelo, sniffling and looking a little confused, sat down on the kitchen chair across from Mrs. Reilly and Mr. Robichaux. boogie woogieConfederacy of DuncesFats Dominonew orleanspiano

John Kennedy Toole

Born on this day. Toole’s life and times is brilliantly set out in this bio on which a forthcoming bio-pic is being based. I also have an edited volume in the works dealing with several aspects of the novel and that should be published next summer or autumn. Butterfly in the TypewriterConfederacy of DuncesCory MacLauchlinhumourJohn Kennedy…

Stephen Fry on A Confederacy of Dunces

I’d imagine that Fry would have done a decent job on the script and he’s absolutely correct that Robbie Coltrane would have made for a plausible Ignatius, circa 1980 that is. Robbie by the way does a very convincing American accent. But we know that the best Iggy would have been Charles Laughton! (in-joke). This said,…

John Kennedy Toole

Speaking of autoscopic doubles (Toole-Ignatius Reilly) I’m working on a review of Cory MacLauchlin’s Butterfly in the Typewriter: The Tragic Life of John Kennedy Toole and the Remarkable Story of A Confederacy of Dunces. Cory reminds us that today marks the death of Toole. It is often said “how can one assess the greatness of the author on one work?”…

Frederick Rolfe a.k.a. Baron Corvo

Given a papal change is underway, Rolf’s Hadrian the Seventh is as timely as ever, and in my view happens to be one of the top five novels of the 20th Century. Here is David Bradshaw’s reliable Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry. Part and parcel of the Corvo legend is Symons’ classic biography of Corvo, Corvo brought to Symons’…