| This hugely comic masterpiece is hard to characterize because it violates conventional narrative categories. Ignatius J. Reilly, a rotund, flatulent, 30-year-old medievalist, pens his indictment of modern society on yellow Big Chief tablets while trying to find and keep a job. A panoply of eccentric characters surround him, from over-enthusiastic Patrolman Mancuso, who mistakenly arrests our hero for vagrancy; to elderly secretary Miss Trixie, who keeps trying and failing to retire; to the poofy Dorian Greene; and the delectable but sinister stripper Lana Lee, owner of the Night of Joy club and an amazing cockatoo. The novel is a portrait of the City of New Orleans and how people speak there as much as anything else. It won the Pulitzer Prize but Toole was not there to see it; he committed suicide in 1969, leaving his mother to scour the country for a publisher and enlist the help of Walker Percy to get the job done. | ||
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Plot & Themes Tone of book? - upbeat Time/era of story - 1960's-1970's Ethnic/Regional/Religion Internal struggle/realization? Yes Struggle over Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book Ethnic/regional/gender life Yes Main Character Gender - Male Profession/status: Age: - 20's-30's Setting How much descriptions of surroundings? - 4 () United States Yes The US: - Deep South City? Yes City: - dirty, grimy (like New York) - - New Orleans Writing Style Sex in book? Yes What kind of sex: - vague references only Amount of dialog - significantly more descript than dialog |
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