Day 17 – Penguin Book-a-Day (Funny Read)

Had to pick Ignatius J. Reilly – because it is a really really funny book and it is a wonderful sunny beach picture. Makes a nice change in this grim wet weather. If you haven’t read „The Confederacy of Dunces“ it is a Pulitzer prize winning comedy about Ignatius a 30 years-old, „genius“, an expert on Boetius with a problematic stomach and inclination to gluttony and flatulence. He spends most of his time in bed, masturbating, eating and writing in his notebooks.

His first job is at a clothing factory in decline, Levy Pants, where my favourite character beside Ignatius makes her unforgettable appearance. Beloved Miss Trixie the old senile bookkeeper „Am I retired yet?“ she constantly asks – no one in particular.

You can find the full review here (in German). Prepare yourself for a hilarious trip through the hotspots of New Orleans.

Walter Percy has a wonderful description of Ignatius:  “ Here at any rate is Ignatius Reilly, without progenitor in any literature I know of — slob extraordinary, a mad Oliver Hardy, a fat Don Quixote, a perverse Thomas Aquinas rolled into one – who is in violent revolt against the entire modern age…“