Great books, really funny and off the wall. He also wrote the Stranger Times series (as C K McDonnell) which are equally excellent.
I’m not reading it right now but I have read it at least 10 times in 20 years, including re-reading immediately after I finished it for the first time. It is, without a shadow of a doubt, the funniest book I’ve ever read. It’s a bit difficult to describe, but it’s a farce set in 1960s New Orleans where a pompous and misanthropic misfit with delusions of grandeur is forced to get a job and interact with a society which appalls him, full of people he despises, who in turn are baffled and repelled by him. It’s got elements of Fawlty Towers and Blackadder, but it predates those shows and (I realise this is a bold claim), it’s funnier than both of them.
one of the lads from work' sister has recently had her first book published. Gate To Kagashima by Poppy Kuroki. with a forward from Diana Gabaldon and will be released in june. just throwing it out there Gate to Kagoshima | Oneworld (oneworld-publications.com)
It’s been a long time since I read this classic, you’ve inspired me to pick it up and re-read it. If can find it!
One of the joys of the book is that you occasionally encounter others who have also been inducted into the ACoD club. I’ve even had fans of the book come over and start talking to me when I’ve been reading it on public transport, as if we’re part of some kind of secret society. I used to have a colleague who was also into it and we once co-defended in a trial which was prosecuted by a barrister who looked, acted and kept having unhinged outbursts just like Ignatius, which caused so much whispering and sniggering between us that the judge ended up giving my mate a bollocking. It was uncanny - the guy’s LinkedIn profile even listed his interests as “….has a growing interest in canon law and is churchwarden of Our Most Holy Saviour. He enjoys the best of food and wine, test match cricket, and sound liturgy.” To the immense relief of my friends and family, I don’t really pepper my conversations with obscure ACoD quotes and references all that much anymore. However, I did name my dog “Ignatius” (which obviously got immediately shortened to “Iggy”) and it still gives me a kick when I get junk mail from PetsAtHome addressed to “Ignatius J Reilly”.
That’s what everyone assumes and tbh there are similarities - he’s got silky brown hair, a lean muscular physique, has a lust for life and is absolutely 100% certifiably nuts.
Have looked high and low and can’t find my copy, I thing my ex girlfriend must have taken it with her when she moved out. New (second hand) copy ordered Some books you simply have to have on the shelf.
I once bought half a dozen spare copies to give out to friends and when I looked up what Billy Connolly had said about the book, it turns out that he does that too. He is clearly a man with a keen sense of theology and geometry. In other news, I've just had to draft my response to a (wholly unjustified) complaint from an instructing solicitor who is trying to get me or my professional indemnity insurance to pick up the tab for his and his colleagues' incompetence, misconduct and dishonesty. As any thriving mercantile enterprise must impose a heavy hand on its detractors, I have written it in the style of Ignatius' reply to "Mr I Abelman, Mongoloid, Esq", when he was working at Levy Pants.
