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Title: Baffled by the high praise for this book
Review: I can honestly say that I don't understand what the other reviewers who give this high marks see in it, especially when they call those who don't like it "humor-impaired". Ignatius is pompous, narcissistic, and boorish, but just having those qualities doesn't make him funny - an author has to do something with a character like that, and Toole doesn't (at least through the first half, after which I gave up because it just got too boring). He and his mother are much like the characters on Desperate Housewives: having no redeeming qualities that might inspire even a slight bit of sympathy or relating, yet not evil or noxious enough to generate antipathy and interest to see how they might meet some kind of downfall. Instead you just wish they'd go away and stop bothering you. But then, I guess there are people who like Desperate Housewives too.
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