It's never really fit in with the David Foster Wallaces and the Thomas Pynchons and the Joseph Hellers and the other "funny classics" and I think that's in part to how adamant the book is that it's in no way a satire. Everything is written with such a rich passion and love towards its subject matter. One of Toole's strongest suits is managing to make every character of his likable, or at the very least so hateable that you can't help but love them. Every character is so complex and human, it's genuine brilliance at work. What characters do can come across as unreasonable, but at least you always understand why they do it. With the exception of Ignatius, no one ever just does things because they're inherently an excessive character. Whatever this is, it's fantastic. It's like the Joe's Garage of classic literature.
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