![]() ![]() ![]() To make sure I do not offend “taste and decency” (Ignatius’ refrain throughout the novel), I will reduce my claim to me: Comedy is what I need. Now, more than ever we need family, working government, thoughtful statistical analysis, faith, pets and good food. Now, we need Ignatius Jacques Reilly and this warmly funny novel to help keep us reflective and hopeful. Comedy that helps us be more human, less afraid and less serious about ourselves. Well, I think we also need comedy-actual laugh-out-loud, wonderfully thoughtful, uniquely creative comedy. Second, I think that we need this novel now more than ever.Īmong the many clichés operative in Covid-time (“in these uncertain times,” “the new normal” and “together apart”), there is the sturdy cliché, “now more than ever.” Now, more than ever we need family, working government, thoughtful statistical analysis, faith, pets and good food. Not only is some of the language and many of the characters of the novel unacceptable and offensive, but the book’s main character resides so absurdly beyond the pale that he aligns himself passionately with the “geometry and theology” of the medieval period. Reilly and John Kennedy Toole, Ignatius’ creator, are utterly beyond the pale. I kept thinking, for two reasons, of Smith’s story while rereading A Confederacy of Dunces over the last few weeks. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole ![]()
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