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. In magnificent revolt against the twentieth century, Igatius propels his monstrous bulk among the flesh -pots of a fallen city, filling his Big Chief tablets with invective, until his maroon-haired mother decrees that Igatius must go to work. 'A pungent work of slapstick, satire and intellectual incongruities... it is nothing less than a grand comic fugue.' The New York Times