i think i remember someone on here saying it was their favorite book ever.

i'm having a hard time getting through this, and i keep wanting to stop but i push on. i don't enjoy reading books who's main character i find completely unlikable.

should i stop now, or will the ending prove to be rewarding?

If you aren't enjoying it, stop. Its a great book in my opinion, but everyone I know who doesn't like it ends up hating it with a passion the more they push on.

It had its moments, but I don't think I ever finished the last quarter or so of the book. It got tiresome and I just quit picking it up.

I finished it, but it's the only book I can remember reading that didn't have a single, likeable character.

hm, maybe i should stop then.

on a side note.

IMDB has a page up saying they are making this into a movie with Will Ferrel as the lead, and that they have casted for the movie four times in the past and the lead has died all four times.

crazy.

I don't get the hype. Like others said, it has its moments, but if the author hadn't offed himself before this thing was ever discovered/published, it would receive no attention whatsoever.

Edit: That being said, the book's influence is everywhere:

The secretary in "The Critic" and Ricky in "Better Off Dead" to name but two.

I read it recently after a couple of failed starts. I too was hoping for some reward for pushing on....no such luck.

I did like a lot of aspects of the book but it was hard to empathize with or care about such a complete bastard of a main character.

The book definitely had its moments but I don't really understand the insane love of this book a lot of people have.

I picked it up from Barnes & Noble two weeks ago, but haven't had time to pick it up and start reading it yet...

I have to ask, for the sake of spurring conversation:
Why do you need to empathize with characters? Why is it necessary to find the main character likable?

The reason I bring that up - for me, I enjoyed the author's treatment of the characters. Everytime you sorta feel sorry for a character, he pulls it back as if to say no no no this character is still despicable. But humanly despicable. These are folks with struggles - they just often take the road less admirable in dealing with their struggles. (It should be noted that I loved the book.)

Interestingly - the movie listing seems to have vanished from imdb. I couldn't find a trace about it. Although the rumor that Will Ferrell is the lead is supported on various other web sites. Mos Def, Drew Barrymore too.

Plus it's a wonderful satire of what we deem intellectual elitism.

so strange, it was up last week.

Good, Will Ferrell will destroy this. They need to get that comic from Celeb Fit club to do it.

I don't imagine that movie will ever get made, or at least made into any form actually resembling the book.

I thought the book was funny. Sure, the main character was pathetic, but that's what made it funny. He's trying so desperately to disengage himself from 'regular society', yet, society keeps steering him back.

I agree it's not necessary to like the characters. I guess I'm not really sure what it is that slightly turned me off about the book.

Lolita is one of my favorite books ever and the main character in that is obviously not a bastion of virtue.

being an asshole to your mom is worse that liking a hot young chick

Holy fuck, people need their main characters to be likeable? That's the kind of fucked up thinking that led to Michael J. Fox's career.

name a non likeable charector that you enjoyed reading about/viewing?

The entire cast of Seinfeld. Best show ever, but least likeable characters ever.

Confederacy of Dunces is the single funniest book I've ever read. Granted, the last 100 pages aren't quite as enjoyable as the first 200, but I could not have enjoyed this book more.

Ever watch Taxi Driver? Raging Bull? Midnight Cowboy? Naked? Withnail And I?

Main characters can be complete and utter assholes, as long as they're interesting. The idea that they have to be "likeable" in order for an audience to find them sympathetic is a fallacy. Most literature bears that out. Llook at the characters of Cervantes' Don Juan or Shakespeare's Hamlet - they're both completely fucking insane. Ignatius O'Reilly may not be "likeable", but he's a fully realized, vivid character (and Confederacy Of Dunces isn't considered a classic by accident - it's some of the best writing ever sandwiched between two cover sheets).

The book itself is great, the "diary entries" are what bugged the shit out of me.

Billzebub nailed it with Ricky from Better Off Dead -- when I read the book that is the dude I pictured. I also like the black dude who is always talking shit about "a pol-ice"

Michael J. Fox as Ignatius Reilly? Now, that'd be sweeeet.

Larry David's "Curb Your Enthusiasm" really operates with this type of anti heroism too. And I love it.

Everyone who posts here.

i liked the characters in Taxi Driver and Midnight Cowboy. They might not be admirable, but i empathized with them. I didn't in Raging Bull, and that's probably why i don't like it.