Fiction related to involuntary celibacy

Various suggestions from a mailing list.

'Arguably the greatest invcel in modern literature is Quoyle, in Annie Proulx's 'The Shipping News'.

In addition to recommending Proulx's entire ouevre to the involuntarily celibate (see 'Postcards' for the story of an invcel man with a sex phobia), I would like to recommend John Kennedy Toole's 'A Confederacy
of Dunces'.
Toole, a heavyset man who lived with his parents and suffered from a depression that led to his suicide before his novel found a publisher, wrote a very funny novel about a heavyset man who lives with his parents, is a virgin and can't hold down a job. This character, Ignatius Reilly, has become an icon to many for his arrogant intelligence, his flamboyant neuroses and his brave defiance of custom ironically coupled with a dehabilitating fear of the world. Despite the critical treatment he receives, it is ultimately a sympathetic portrayal of a celibate 30-year-old man.'

'The Saga Of A Shy Fellow' is a novel by psychiatrist and former university professor Ruy Miranda. The main character stays in a state of involuntary celibacy for a long period of his life due to shyness.

'I keep meaning to mention the work of Robertson Davies, a Canadian novelist (alas, recently deceased).  In several of his books there are well-drawn characters who are celibate for long periods of time.
I personally found myself identifying with Dunstan Ramsey, in 'Fifth Business', the 1st book of the Deptford Trilogy.  The 2nd book of that trilogy, 'The Manticore' is about the psychoanalysis of a young man who's incel.'

'Has anyone here read 'The Sound and the Fury' by William Faulkner?  Quentin Compson's chapter (chapter 2) is almost a study in the effect that prolonged virginity can have on a person's mind.  Quentin is a college student who is obsessed with the concepts of virginity and time (in that he feels his time is running out).  His younger sister (Caddie) is not a virgin, and this torments him (especially because he seems to be sexually attracted to her in a kind of Freudian way).  Anyway, I think that anyone who has battled with depression, anxiety or incel would find that they identify a little too closely with Quentin's character (tragically, he commits suicide).'

The children's book 'The Man Who Lived Alone' is "The perfect antidote to the weirdo-loner-'he must be like Ted Kaczynski' complex" according to a mailing list member.