"When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him," writes Jonathan Swift. Ignatius Reilly, Toole’s loony hero, is anything but a genius. Ignatius himself, however, would probably disagree, and that’s just one of the countless hilarities of this phenomenal novel. A Confederacy of Dunces is at once absurd and wise, confounding and enlightening. Above all, this book reminds me that no matter the beatings life can give you— real, or in Ignatius’s case, delusional — there always is humor to be found somewhere.