A Confederacy of Dunces, there is a mini story that occurs alongside the main story. It consists of three characters, Lana Lee, Darlene, and Jones, who work in a bar called the Night of Joy. Lana Lee is the owner, and she is a corrupt and mean woman. Darlene works to sell people drinks by striking up conversation with customers and suggesting that they buy more drinks. Her job is tough because Lana fills her alcohol bottles with water in an effort to get the same amount of money for less product. When it comes to money, Lana will do just about anything. This is shown when she hires Jones, the porter. Jones is in a bad situation because if he does not find a job, the police told him they would put him away. Fortunately for Lana, that means that she can hire him for a tiny amount of money, and he will be unable to quit. She loves the deal because it saves her tons of money.
The bar story, while a nice break from Ignatius and his obnoxious nature, seems to be only loosely connected to the main story. Ignatius and his mother went into the Night of Joy in the first scene, but that is one of the only times where the main story and the side story connect. Each story will occasionally mention the other, but so far they seem to have very little to do with each other. As I said in an earlier post, Toole likes to introduce characters briefly at first, and expand on them later in the novel. Because of this, I think that later in the book he is going to connect the two stories.
If I were to make a guess, I would say that there is going to be a crime at the Night of Joy, which Mancuso will investigate. He will probably tell Irene, who will then tell Ignatius. Somehow, stories of the Night of Joy and Ignatius will become intertwined, but at the moment I am not sure how. Until then, the Night of Joy provides an interesting side story and break from the real story.
