A Confederacy of Dunces vs Johnny Angel: Which Should You Read?
Both live on shelves: Sons, Mothers and sons, Fiction
A Confederacy of Dunces
“A green hunting cap squeezed the top of the fleshy balloon of a head.”
A Confederacy of Dunces is an American comic masterpiece. John Kennedy Toole's hero is one Ignatius J. Reilly, "huge, obese, fractious, fastidious, a latter-day Gargantua, a Don Quixote of the French Quarter. His story…
vs
Johnny Angel
The breath-taking story of a mother's love and a son's gift...Johnny Peterson could light up a room with a word or a smile. He had a future filled with promise – until he stepped into a car on prom night and, in an…
The verdict
- Ratings are close across the board — any is a safe pick by score.
- Johnny Angel is the quickest read — about 3 hours vs 6 for A Confederacy of Dunces.
- A Confederacy of Dunces has the widest readership — 307339 ratings behind its score.
How to choose
Scores by source
| A Confederacy of Dunces | Johnny Angel | |
|---|---|---|
| Goodreads | 3.9 (307339) | 3.9 (8367) |
| Hardcover | 3.9 (571) | 3.8 (4) |
| Google Books | 5.0 (1) | 4.5 (5) |
| Apple Books | 4.0 (204) | 4.5 (98) |
Reception
| A Confederacy of Dunces | Johnny Angel | |
|---|---|---|
| Ratings | 307339 | 8367 |
| Editions | 69 | 26 |
| Film adaptations | 1 | — |
| Want to read | 240657 | — |
| Written reviews | 22728 | — |
| Wikipedia attention | 32116 | 443 |
| Pages | 377 | 194 |