The Center of Everything, Ignatius J. Reilly

 ""I'm Patrolman Mancuso. Undercover agent. You're under arrest for soliciting and for possession of pornography."" (Pg 335).

This quote takes place at the climax of the book... 60 pages before it actually ends. The final 100 pages of A Confederacy of Dunces was a truly bizarre few chapters to read. In summary, our "hero" Ignatius heads to the first meeting of the "political party" he planned with Dorian Greene from the French Quarter, which, much to Ignatius's chagrin, turned out to just be a party, one from which he was quickly kicked out. He headed to the Night of Joy to see the performance of "Scarlet O'Hara," a stripper character played by Darlene that Ignatius believes to be an intellectual due to having seen a pornographic photo of her holding a book that had been taken from him. This goes disastrously, Ignatius's earring is attacked by Darlene's bird, and he is nearly hit by a bus before passing out. Officer Mancuso, who was there undercover, used the opportunity to expose Lana Lee's (the owner of the bar) pornography distribution ring, and he was promptly beat up by three angry women from the party Ignatius attended. All of this happened within the span of ten or so pages.

This section is practically the perfect climax to the book--most major characters are directly involved in some way, it intertwines their seemingly separate storylines perfectly as everything comes together for a beautiful, messy sequence of events, described by the quoted description of a newspaper photograph of the incident: "On the right Darlene with her ball gown was holding the cockatoo and smiling a starlet's smile. On the left Lana Lee covered her face with her hands as she climbed into the rear seat of a squad car already filled with the three cropped heads of the members of the ladies' auxiliary of the Peace Party." (Pg 337). This is followed by an unflattering description of the battered Mancuso and unconscious Ignatius. Throwing all of these separate characters into one situation is something that I think is crucial to the novel: the payoff for its overall structure.

This book is structured almost as a series of separate stories, watching different characters from New Orleans go about their ridiculous lives. However, part of the book's fun is watching these stories slowly intertwine, watching all of the characters each find out about Ignatius and be astounded by his ridiculous behavior, watching various characters become aware (or remain blissfully unaware) of Mancuso's undercover actions, seeing this disaster at the Night of Joy unfold. That's what makes the climax work--it's the perfect ending for such a structural style, it conclusively gives almost every character a satisfying ending all at once.

After the climax, there's a particularly long section of the book still remaining, primarily focusing on Gus Levy (the owner of Levy Pants, Ignatius's former employer) and his wife as they try to find the person responsible for forging a letter in Mr. Levy's name (who happens to be Ignatius.) I think that final section deserves a spotlight in my final blog post, while the climax of this book was a beautiful example of John Kennedy Toole's writing style.