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A Confederacy of Dunces Chapter 8 Summary

How It All Goes Down

  • Mrs. Levy tries to improve Miss Trixie's psychological health by telling her she's happy; Miss Trixie tries to sleep; Mr. Levy tells Mrs. Levy to leave Trixie alone. Good times abound.
  • Officer Mancuso is in the bus station bathroom and has a terrible cold. He is reading the Consolation of Philosophy, and it is making him depressed.
  • Mancuso discovers George in the bathroom and tries to arrest him, but George grabs the Consolation of Philosophy and hits Mancuso in the head with it.
  • Later, Mrs. Reilly and Mancuso go over to Santa's house, where Santa tells Mrs. Reilly that there's an old man interested in meeting her, and he's coming to the house.
  • The old man turns out to be Claude Robichaux, the guy Mrs. Reilly got arrested at the beginning of the book.
  • Mrs. Reilly is extremely uncomfortable especially since Officer Mancuso is in the other room; she's afraid there will be a scene when Robichaux sees him.
  • Robichaux and Mrs. Reilly chat. Mrs. Reilly gets somewhat drunk, and complains about Ignatius.
  • Finally Mancuso appears and, just as Mrs. Reilly feared, Robichaux screams at him; Mancuso is depressed.
  • Mancuso apologizes to Robichaux, and they manage to make amends well enough.