It's one of my top 10 or 15, at least, but I also read it before I knew about the suicide (or even that many other people had read this book.) If they ever make a movie, it'll probably be cool, although WIll Ferrel in a fatsuit doesn't make me think "cinema."

Um...Hamlet? (i.e. all modern literature)

maybe he worded it wrong, i don't know, i think that i can see what he's saying when he offers that you don't keep reading/watching/listening if the main character doesn't offer something to keep you intrigued or interested. Like that recent movie Closer, i certainly didn't like or empathize with any of the characters, but i kept watching because i wanted to see natalie portman's cervix, or possibly to see Clive Owen yell at someone. that was enough. to compare, i also didn't like bill murray's character in Lost in Translation, but i didn't care enough about him to really care how the movie ended. although in retrospect i liked the $8 i plunked down to see it enough that i wanted to get my money's worth out of the experience, so i didn't leave.

point being that you can be interested in characters that you hate and ambivalent about those that you might like, for whatever reason.

they are likeable people with exaggerated eccentricities.
Ignatioius is just an asshole.

I love Confederacy of Dunces.

If you want to read a couple of great pieces of literature with shattered freaks as protagonists, I can think of lots off the bat, but here's two:

Gunter Grass - The Tin Drum

Elias Canetti - Die Blendung (aka Auto da Fe)

Hell, as has been said before, the warts and festering pustules of human existence are perhaps what makes great characters - there are many much more offensive than Ignatius O'Reilly

Cervantes's Don Juan? My Got, I am imagining Sean Penn's I Am Sam characiture starring in a reverse-gang-bang porno. And, while that would be tres hot, I think the original post was meant to read as Miguel Saavedra de Cervantes's Don Quixote.

Don Juan was configured by Tirso de Molina, and adapted for the opera by Mozart as the Italian (greasier than, but not as swarthy as, a Spaniard) Don Giovanni.

mmmkay...?

np: Blue Meanies -- hidden tracks from Full Throttle... 35 minutes!... More time to marvel at the play of... Nazr Muhammad!

I thought this was a hilarious book. However, back to the original question of Jewels pushing on or not... I was expecting this gigantic blow up in the end. Everything was set up perfect for it. All the characters in the book who had different plot lines throughout were all set up for this potentially bombastic rendezvous. In the end however, I don't feel it turned out that way and I even think the ending itself was a bit of a wimper. The first 7/8 of the book are great the rest... meh.

Nice catch, and thanks for the correction.

What I don't like about the casting is Will Ferrell has ruled out gaining sixty or seventy-five pounds for the role. The topic came up in the ONION AV*Club interview with Ferrell in autumn '03, and he nigh categorically ruled it out, citing de Niro's metabolic issues (supposed, I presume) since Raging Bull as reason not to gain the weight.

Personally, though, Will in fat suit would be worse. (Yes, I don't give two shits 'bout his health.) In fact, I think a fat-suit-wearing Ferrell as Ignatius Riley would make the animatronic Scooby in the two recent pictures look real.

So, if they ruin the aesthetic of the film by using a thin actor in fat suit, why not just give Eminem his second feature-film role? He did pretty well as a somewhat-misanthropic, glowering, moody anti-hero in Eight Mile, so I think he could pull off Riley with aplomb, and he hasn't looked ridiculous in a fat-suit for his videos (namely, "Without Me").

Or, even better, they could get, say, an Oliver Platt to reprise Ignatius Riley. No fat-suit required then.

Just my 0.02$.

someone on IMDB suggested Kubiac, and i don't disagree

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0072344/

Costanza's not an asshole?!?!? I mean, he's definitely hilarious, but that doesn't mean he's not an asshole.

Haha Kubiac from Parker Lewis Can't Lose.