# A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

3 Hacker News commenters recommended A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** People recommend it as a hilarious, great novel that still feels relevant, and its audiobook has convincing American accents.

## Why people recommend it

- Very funny and entertaining (1 comments): "John Kennedy Toole’s hilarious A Confederacy of Dunces" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46070599))
- Relatable, comically disastrous protagonist (1 comments): "would be a personally-relatable disaster (to start with; it's great)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48542601))
- Audiobook has convincing American accents (1 comments): "this has multiple American accents that I bet no non native speaker could capture" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48896756))
- Still relevant today (1 comments): "it's as applicable as ever" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48029754))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky](https://hackerapproved.com/p/crime-and-punishment.md): 39 recommend
- [The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky](https://hackerapproved.com/p/brothers-karamazov.md): 28 recommend
- [Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace](https://hackerapproved.com/p/infinite-jest.md): 26 recommend
- [The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald](https://hackerapproved.com/p/great-gatsby.md): 24 recommend
- [Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand](https://hackerapproved.com/p/atlas-shrugged.md): 23 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0241951593?tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)
- [Bookshop.org](https://bookshop.org/a/130825/9780241951590) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole", https://hackerapproved.com/p/a-confederacy-of-dunces/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).