John Kennedy Toole

Dumskallarnas sammansvärjning av John Kennedy Toole har kallats en av de roligaste böcker som någonsin skrivits. Här stiger Ignatius J. Reilly rakt in i världslitteraturen: ofromligt fet, otroligt lat och oförväget stridslysten, ett mellanting mellan Helan och Don Quijote med en omättlig aptit på popcorn, varm korv och dåliga filmer. På sitt enmanskorståg mot den moderna tiden och på jakt efter ett lagom lättsamt jobb hamnar han i en serie vanvettiga äventyr som styrs av sin egen inre logik mot katastrof.

John Kennedy Tooles debutbok från 1980 väckte stor uppmärksamhet när den kom ut och hyllades unisont av såväl läsare som kritikerkår. Toole själv fick aldrig njuta av framgången. Han skrev romanen redan på 1960-talet och försökte fruktlöst få den publicerad under sin livstid. Frustrerad och djupt deprimerad av motgångarna tog han sitt liv 1969, 32 år gammal. Det är tack vare hans mor som boken fick alla de läsare den nu förtjänar. Hon gav aldrig upp kampen att ge ut sonens roman, som hon så starkt trodde på.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize"A masterwork . . . the novel astonishes with its inventiveness . . . it is nothing less than a grand comic fugue."-The New York Times Book ReviewA green hunting cap squeezed the top of the fleshy balloon of a head. The green earflaps, full of large ears and uncut hair and the fine bristles that grew in the ears themselves, stuck out on either side like turn signals indicating two directions at once. Full, pursed lips protruded beneath the bushy black moustache and, at their corners, sank into little folds filled with disapproval and potato chip crumbs.So enters one of the most memorable characters in recent American fiction.The hero of John Kennedy Toole's incomparable, Pultizer Prize-winning comic classic is one Ignatius J. Reilly, an obese, self-absorbed, hapless Don Quixote of the French Quarter, whose half-hearted attempts at employment lead to a series of wacky adventures among the lower denizens of New Orleans. This book has become an American comic masterpiece.

Brought to you by Penguin.One of the BBC's '100 Novels That Shaped Our World'A monument to sloth, rant and contempt, a behemoth of fat, flatulence and furious suspicion of anything modern - this is Ignatius J. Reilly of New Orleans, noble crusader against a world of dunces. The ordinary folk of New Orleans seem to think he is unhinged. Ignatius ignores them, heaving his vast bulk through the city's fleshpots in a noble crusade against vice, modernity and ignorance. But his momma has a nasty surprise in store for him: Ignatius must get a job. Undaunted, he uses his new-found employment to further his mission - and now he has a pirate costume and a hot-dog cart to do it with...Never published during his lifetime, John Kennedy Toole's hilarious satire, A Confederacy of Dunces is a Don Quixote for the modern age, now brought to life by the comedy legend, Reginald D. Hunter.'This is probably my favourite book of all time' Billy Connolly'A masterwork of comedy' The New York Times 'My favourite book of all time... it stays with you long after you have read it - for your whole life, in fact' Billy Connolly'A pungent work of slapstick, satire and intellectual incongruities ... it is nothing less than a grand comic fugue'The New York Times(c) John Kennedy Toole 2000 (P) Penguin Audio 2021