Read October 2025
I bought the book in 2017 off a whim knowing nothing about it. That's rare for me. It was pretty fun until the weird border collie scene which was distasteful enough that I put it away. A few years ago I was even going to donate the book but something told me to keep it and I'm glad I did, and eventually gained the patience to give it a chance past that really weird section.
I identify far too much with Ignatius, to a depressing degree, but one thing I am grateful for is having a mom who doesn't just tolerate me but loves me. She knows too well how evil and useless psychiatry (and pharmaceuticals) actually are and would never throw me to the wolves. She is also among the most brilliant people I've known, quite unlike Irene who reeks of mediocrity. Irene is the one responsible for Ignatius being the way he is (as well as that awful priest who wouldn't give Rex a proper service), making her rather rotten, albeit in an unintentional way, as I'm sure she was raised to regard animals as worthless inferiors. A question I have is whether the audience was intended to identify with Ignatius in any way, or if he was solely the butt of a joke. I am not sure still, so the joke may be on me.
It saddens me even more, though, to know that I am perhaps more pathetic than Ignatius. He is able to walk around all day pushing a weenie cart for gainful work with only sore feet to answer to, while I risk spasms just standing and sitting let alone walking. Perhaps Ignatius' pyloric valve was initially a real ailment that he recovered from physically that sublimated into psychosomatic pain, the same way my back did. A quiet job sorting files at a pants factory or selling hot dogs to hungry customers actually sounds fun and I'd give anything to be able to work part-time. Another thing is that Ignatius has a beautiful Jewish girlfriend, exactly what I want. She even came to his rescue at the end, in his darkest hour. What about me? Where's my Myrna minx? I suppose it's best being alone considering my condition...
Anyways, overall the characters were incredibly vivid and rich with life, filling me with a strange mix of anger and mirth. Everyone was a "dunce" in their own unique way and I'm left saddened that I won't get to see them again. Yet I'm also saddened that they exist at all because they make the American South seem like a bubbling stirpot of filth and imbecility. Ignatius is right to mostly detest it. New York will be just as bad. He has a long road ahead of him.
I took the cover art and made Ignatius and the bird into the scorpion
from Dragon Quest
