This comedy is kind of like if Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory wasn't a physicist, but instead an M.B.A.

Ignatius Riley is this aloof oaf, who thinks supremely highly of himself and very little of those around him. The recurring joke is that someone will ask him to do something he is more or less socially or legally obligated to do, and his response is always an indignant "OH MY GOD," followed by a rant about the heathens he is surrounded by.

He's a shut-in, a gaslighter, an anti-communist, an ideological virgin, and a habitual louse. The story follows him around, making a mess of things as his mother continues to threaten to kick him out of the house. The story begins with her getting in a drunk driving accident –and– I'm not sure if this is an artifact of the era that this book was written in (the 60s) when houses were more affordable, or if it's supposed to be a clue indicate that Ignatius's mother is a total rube, but when she mentions that she could mortgage the house to pay a $1000 DUI fine and that she would get $7000 on the house. I'm a little bit shocked.

He gets a job at the Levy Pants factory where he attempts to unionize the workers (all laborers in the story make less than the wage which makes his efforts and Jones' complaints about working conditions ironically based), but not really in any effort to financially support his mother (who he views as a distraction, a drunk, and a colossal wet blanket), but instead to win back the affection of his college ex: Myrna Minkoff, whom he keeps close correspondence with.

He is summarily fired, but not before forging some inflammatory letters to clients of the factory under the signature of the founder of Levy Pants who conveniently loathes the job his father left him with. Following a series of increasingly ironic litigious shenanigans, intermixed with severe comedic relief by the black vagrant who must get a job lest he be thrown in jail –Burma Jones– who offers us such quips as:

Where you keep a mothafuckin' broom?

always spoken through a cloud of smoke who's obscuring film is described differently each time.

I think this book succeeds most in how contrarian in it to what a novel should be. It breaks many of the rules, such as having sympathetic characters, who have just (or any) motivations to speak of, and yet we the reader gets drawn into Ignatius' conspiracy and vindication. It's quite a fun ride.

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