Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Fall 2005 - (Page 68)

BOOKSTAND book review by Thomas Uskali Novel ideas A friend of both John Kennedy Toole and his mother offers a behind-the-scenes view into the making of a literary classic John Kennedy Toole wrote A Confederacy of Dunces, and was close to having it published before his death, but it was his mother, Thelma, who actually got it to press. Joel Fletcher knew them both, and his experiences and insights are an important window into their lives. In Ken and Thelma: The Story of A Confederacy of Dunces, Fletcher recalls the time that he spent with the witty, irreverent Toole, and how years later he became Thelma’s escort on a series of adventures that were at least as loopy as the woman herself. Fletcher’s approach is practical and clear — he reminds the reader of key events in the Tooles’ lives, clarifies a few misconceptions, and honestly acknowledges what he does and doesn’t know about “Ken” Toole. He also sticks close to his source material. This adds up to a refreshing lack of overarching literary pronouncements and psychological second-guessing. Fletcher met Toole at the University of Southwestern Louisiana in Lafayette, where Toole was studying. Fletcher recounts an afternoon they spent on a visit to New Orleans’ French Quarter, as recorded in his 1960 journal: “We walked through the Quarter to Elysian Fields, now a totally decayed neighborhood where all the doors have shutters Dirtylooking mothers screaming at their much dirtier children. Suddenly, we were caught in a shower of large, thundering raindrops. ‘GET IN OUTTA DAT RAIN, CHA’LIE!’ one of the mothers yelled at her child, and (WHAP!) struck the child with a convenient board. ‘GET IN OUTTA DAT RAIN! YOU’LL GET SICK!’ (WHAP!) She struck again. Ken was transfixed by the scene We stopped at the Morning Call Café and over café au lait Ken and Thelma: The Story of A Confederacy of Dunces by Joel L. Fletcher Pelican Publishing Company Gretna, La. 2005 with chicory, Ken mimicked the Elysian Fields mother braining her child while voicing such concern over his welfare, chuckling to himself, delighted by the comic irony.” Fletcher continues: “Years later, when I read Confederacy for the first time, I thought of poor ‘Cha’lie’ and his mom when I read Ken’s description in Confederacy of Santa Battaglia abusing her grandchildren: ‘Get away from that stove, Charmaine, and go play on the banquette before I bust you right in the mouth.’ We had seen Santa Battaglia on Elysian Fields.” That illustrates what makes this particular book valuable — Fletcher captures both the inspiration and the artistic execution of a passage that every reader of Confederacy will recognize. It’s one of many small but significant revelations for readers to discover. Fletcher also knew the wildly eccentric Bobby Byrne, “indisputably the inspiration” for Ignatius J. Reilly, the main character in A Confederacy of Dunces. Toole and Byrne were both from Uptown New Orleans, but didn’t meet until they were on the faculty at Southwestern. Beyond the description of Byrne as a “large man with curly black hair,” readers will recognize the Bobby/Ignatius link: “He lived a rather solitary life with stacks of books and journals and sheet music and a harpsichord he played very badly.” Except for regular trips to New Orleans his only other travels were to Wales for the Eisteddfod, a Welsh music and literary festival. Fletcher notes, “On these trips he was careful to choose flights that took him directly to Wales without having layovers in London, which he considered a center of decadence.” Fletcher first met Thelma Ducoing Toole in the early 1960’s, and it wasn’t until 1979, just before the publication of Confederacy that they met again. She latches upon him immediately. When he dropped by her run-down house on Elysian Fields Avenue, Fletcher notes that “the lionization of Thelma,” had not yet begun, but when it did, I was to see much 68 LOUISIANA ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES\Summer 2005

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Fall 2005

Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Fall 2005 Contents Editor’s Column Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities Louisiana State Museum After Katrina and Rita Tabasco: Edmund McIlhenny and the Birth of a Louisiana Pepper Sauce Historic New Orleans Collection Louisiana Association of Museums New Orleans’ Coffee Connection No Man’s Land Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism Bookstand (Book Review by Thomas Uskali) Sound Advice (Music Review by Ben Sandmel) Forum (Commentary by Roy Blount, Jr. )

Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Fall 2005

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.