A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (1980)

Set in 1960s New Orleans, the novel follows the misadventures of Ignatius J. Reilly, an educated yet slothful thirty-year-old man living with his mother.

Ignatius's reluctance to work leads him to a variety of misadventures, including confrontations with a hotdog vendor, the police, and a stripper.

It is in his encounters with them, as well as his search for employment, that Ignatius discovers his potential and finds his place in the world.

The novel's farcical elements are rooted in Ignatius's stubborn refusal to compromise his ideals in the face of a society that he views as shallow and materialistic.

Ignatius's passionate outbursts, often directed against modern society, are comic in nature, but are delivered in a highly philosophical manner.

His inflated sense of self and his intellectual posturing make him an unreliable narrator and a source of much of the novel's humor.

The novel contains a collection of eccentric characters, with whom Ignatius interacts during his search for meaningful employment.

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