A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

There are a number of books which I could go back and read... the other is A Confederacy Of Dunces (by John Kennedy Toole). On his blog: Watching Withnail And I reminded me of one of my favourite books, A Confederacy Of Dunces, written by John Kennedy Toole. Again a piece of work that I find supremely funny and tragic. Absolutely brilliant. A must read, but again I don’t know how many of you will like it. Have read the book twice and plan to read it once every couple years. [source]

Also recommended by: Colin Quinn, Harry Shearer

A Confederacy of Dunces is a picaresque novel by American novelist John Kennedy Toole which appeared in 1980, eleven years after Toole's suicide. Published through the efforts of writer Walker Percy (who also contributed a foreword) and Toole's mother, the book became first a cult classic, then a mainstream success; it earned Toole a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1981, and is now considered a canonical work of modern literature of the Southern United States. Toole's lunatic and sage novel introduces one of the most memorable characters in American literature, Ignatius Reilly, whom Walker Percy dubs "slob extraordinaire, a mad Oliver Hardy, a fat Don Quixote, a perverse Thomas Aquinas rolled into one." Set in New Orleans, A confederacy of Dunces outswifts Swift, one of whose essays gives the book its title. As its characters burst into life, they leave the region and literature forever changed by their presence-Ignatius and his mother; Miss Trixie, the octogenarian assistant accountant at Levi Pants; inept, wan Patrolman Mancuso; Darlene, the Bourbon Street stripper with a penchant for poultry; Jones the jivecat in spaceage dark glasses.