Hello, I'm David Kern.

I'm Heidi White.

And I'm Tim McIntosh.

And you are listening to Close Reads, a podcast for the Incurable Reader.

We're talking about John Kennedy Tools, a Confederacy of Dunces.

We're going to talk about parts four, five, and six.

And it's Thanksgiving week.

So while this will not be up for your Thanksgiving, it might be up for your

holiday weekend travels. Recovery. Your recovery. Your shopping. Your leftovers. You're cleaning.

If you decided like Friday or Saturday to actually clean up, your Christmas shopping, whatever it is,

you're doing this weekend. We can join in on the fun.

So we're here to discuss, speaking of fun, chapters 4, 5, and 6 of a Confederacy of Denses.

And I wrote down a couple of questions here for you guys.

And I was thinking about this is one of those books.

It's unusual, especially, I mentioned this last week, but it's unusual compared to many of the books

that we read on the show for the way that it thinks about plot. Because it's really not even

clear, for example, what our character wants. Like, what is the, you know, if you're thinking

about the traditional story arc, what is the thing that he wants? What is the thing that he desires? What is he trying to overcome? I mean, lots of those sorts of things, right?

But we're not really even clear on what is this story about other than this guy in his

craziness. So what I wanted to ask, I started thinking about this is one of those books where you

constantly say, what's the deal with? And then you insert So what I wanted to ask, I started thinking about, this is one of those books where you constantly

say, what's the deal with?

...