‘When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him’ – Jonathan Swift. 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, Ignatius propels his monstrous bulk amongst the flesh-pots of a fallen city, documenting life on his Big Cief tablets as he goes – until his maroon-haired mother decrees that he must work.