Ken & Thelma: The Story Of A Confederacy Of Dunces | Joel L. Fletcher

Ken & Thelma: The Story Of A Confederacy Of Dunces | Joel L. Fletcher | Ken and Thelma a Must Read for Confederacy Enthusiasts

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Ken & Thelma: The ...

	Ken & Thelma: The Story Of A Confederacy Of Dunces Joel L. Fletcher Pelican Publishing Company, 2005 - 216 pages average customer review:based on 10 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Joel L. Fletcher recreates his friendship with the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and his long association with Toole's indomitable mother.

Finally, something insightful on Toole's life.

After reading the abysmally amateurish Ignatius Rising, I didn't have much hope for this. However, as a New Orleanian and unabashed Confederacy fan, I was obligated to purchase it.

Boy, am I glad I did. While the book primarily concentrates on the author's relationship with Thelma, there's a plethora of correspondence and anecdotes that give the reader a much better insight into the life of Ken. You won't be sorry.

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Ken and Thelma a Must Read for Confederacy Enthusiasts

As friend and fellow Louisianan, Joel Fletcher was a natural choice to have written of the story of John Kennedy Toole and Confederacy of Dunces from a unique and personal perspective. The story of the great writer's masterpiece and his mother Thelma's role in the writer's life and death, is a must read for any Confederacy enthusiast. Fletcher, an objective and realistic observer who understands the limits of his relationship to the subject, proves an able story-teller in the great tradition of southern story-tellers where wit and timing are perfectly matched. I recommend this book to any reader of modern American literature.

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Mainly Thelma's Story But That's Enough

This little book (and it is little in both page count and size, note the dimensions) is quite charming but in some ways disappointing. The author was a friend of John Kennedy Toole but theirs does not seem to have been a friendship close enough to share any real intimacy beyond casual letters and hanging out together at times. The real star of this book is not Toole but his mother, the defiantely eccentric yet amazingly heroic and strong Thelma Toole who became very much a Louisiana legend following the posthumous publication of her son's A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES in 1980 up to her death in 1983. Stopping by Ms. Toole's home to congratulate her on the book's success, the author quickly became something of a surrogate son to Thelma, chaperoning her to events and even to New York for an appearance on NBC's TOMORROW talk show. And as such the book is invaluable in giving of a glimpse on this willful woman who would not let her son's work sit unpublished despite almost a decade of rejection. Although Fletcher seems most concerned about that "other" book's presumptions about Toole's private life, to me it's most appalling point was it's vicious cartoonish take on Thelma who is made a fool on almost every page with no redeeming qualities. Fletcher saw her flaws (and bluntly says he is glad she was not HIS mother) but he also recognized the strength and humanity in her. And some of her crabbing most definately seems justified. One wishes Fletcher could tell us a little more about Toole but it appears JKT was exceptionally remote even among friends.

Although many have long lamented the long, to date unsuccessful, road to get a film made of CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES filmed (and with the recent tragedy of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, a film version seems almost impossible to be produced for untold number of years), I personally am most dissapointed in the seeming lack of interest in the author beyond Louisiana borders despite COD's best-selling status and critical acclaim. The two books on Toole to date where both published in Louisiana, the reviews to both overwhelmingly are also from within the state. Where are the academic volumes on Toole to say nothing of a major biography? If books can be written on authors from two centuries ago, certainly someone could do a major work on this writer despite his early death and bibliography limited to two posthumous works.

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A modest biography

If you're reading this, then you are probably familiar with John Kennedy Toole. From this book, you will learn a little bit more about this writer. There are other, more speculative books on this topic; Fletcher stays with the facts as he knew them, and as he was able to discover them. I think this is the best of the Toole bios. This is not a massive book; this reflects the short span of Toole's life.

interesting

Very interesting book if you enjoyed Confederacy of Dunces. I especially enjoyed the connection to New Orleans and surrounding area, as in Toole's own book.

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reviews: page 1, 2

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