I am happy to be finished with this one. It's long. It's the second book I've read in a row about a grotesquely overweight and annoyingly socially inept "academic" man. I don't want to hear one more word about Ignatius J. Reilly's "valve." I don't want to read anymore of his absurd social commentaries. I don't want to see him win. I don't like him. The novel, as a whole, wasn't bad but I don't like any of the characters. Not one of them. And it was painful to read some of the scenes just because I was embarrassed for them.
So, I said the novel wasn't bad and I guess that needs some backing up. It's well written and it's fairly funny. It's vaguely reminiscent, as Walker Percy points out in his brief intro, of Don Quixote. Except you like Quixote, you want him to get the girl of his dreams, you want the windmills to be giants. You don't root for Reilly. You want the police to arrest him. You want the lesbians to beat him up. You want the black workers to smash his brains in. You want his mother to finally take some real initiative and kick his 30+ year old ass out of the house. Ok. That's not helping with the "not a bad book" argument. Somehow, Toole makes the novel compelling without asking for any sympathy for the characters. You don't have to like them in order to find the book enjoyable. And that's quite a feat because there is a long list of characters. Toole manages to keep in a tight storyline that coheres and honestly involves all of them--with the exception of one, a college professor of Reilly's that pops up 3 or 4 times but really has nothing to do with the plot as a whole except as another life Reilly has ruined.
That character and the end of the novel are my huge problems. The professor doesn't need to appear. We get stories about Reilly's college days and the professor's don't add anything. We could have used Mirna's voice (Reilly's college "friend"), though. And the end. Yick. I'm giving it away because it's just terrible. He wins. He escapes the fate he's created for himself. He escapes the people who deserve to punish him. He escapes his punishments. He escapes some much needed professional mental help. And he hasn't changed. He's not a better person. He hasn't learned anything. I still don't like him. And I don't want to think that's he's continuing his absurd life in the real world somewhere (of the book, of course--I don't think he's come to life). If ever there needed to be a random, uncalled for moment of violence, it needed to be at the end of this book.
And, they (the big and ominous "they") were going to make a movie out of it?! Besides having to cut at least 50% of it, they'd have to let the audience like someone. I don't think they'd get away with a movie where everyone is unlikable. But I think the movie was cancelled or put aside anyway so no worries there.
I don't even know whether to recommend the book. I read it because my Dad LOVES it and has been after me for several years (literally) to read it. I don't dislike the book but I do dislike every character in it. Odd.
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