Een samenzwering van idioten

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A green hunting cap squeezed the top of a fleshy head, with earflaps and large ears sticking out like turn signals. Meet Ignatius J. Reilly, the tragicomic hero of this tale. At 30, he lives with his mother in New Orleans, writing his magnum opus on hidden Big Chief pads and recounting a traumatic Greyhound journey. His quiet life of tyrannizing his mother is disrupted when Patrolman Mancuso mistakes him for a vagrant, leading to a car accident with his tipsy mother. Suddenly, Ignatius finds himself searching for a job, stumbling through various misadventures. His brief stint as a hotdog vendor fails, and he upends the Levy Pants Company. Along the way, he encounters a cast of colorful characters, including stripper Darlene and her cockatoo, the thwarted retiree Miss Trixie, the flamboyant Dorian Greene, the sinister Miss Lee, and Myrna Minkoff, the woman he loves to hate. The intricate subplots rival those of Dickens, beautifully woven together by the end. Ignatius, selfish and deluded yet larger than life, is a modern-day Quixote facing contemporary giants. His comedic bluster conceals a deep melancholy, making him a poignant figure. John Kennedy Toole, who tragically took his own life in 1969, left behind Ignatius as a fitting tribute to his tormented genius.