Monsignor Quixote

Rating:
Summary: Don Quixote and Sancho will live on
Review: A small-town priest (Toboso, where Don Quixote's beloved comes from) meets an Italian bishop, who promotes him to the degree of Monsignor. Before assuming his new responsibilities, he and the Marxist ex-mayor of Toboso, "Sancho" decide to take the car and travel around Spain. As they go along, they have several adventures and discuss about their respective views on religion and life. Although it is not a pretentious or "profound" novel, it touches the subjects of tolerance and, above all, the possibility of people being friends even if they have disagreements on their basic views of the world and the humankind. Or, if not friends, at least people can coexist peacefully. It really surprised me how much this book reminds me of another fine literary work -in my view, superior to this one- which constantly and funnily elaborates on this same subject: "The world of Don Camillo", by Giovanni Guareschi. This one is about a small village in post-war Italy, where Don Camillo, the local priest, and Pepone, the communist mayor, interact through the years. I have reviewed it for Amazon.com, and I think the basic conclusion if similar to that of Monsignor Quixote. Summarizing, this novel by Graham Greene is really good, not so much for the "literature" it has, but for the meaning and significance of its subject. It is a pity that few people read it. Moreover, it is yet another proof that Cervantes' masterpiece is and will remain alive, with good writers going over and over to its central characters, structure and theme.

Rating:
Summary: Greene vs Greene
Review: As someone says on the cover of my edition, the dialogue between the Catholic priest and the Marxist mayor is really Greene talking to Greene. The wonderful Mr. Greene. Rather left leaning in his time and a converted Catholic, one might expect a little propaganda on the subject. But no, Mr. Greene has the honesty, and the intellectual insight, to describe both the strengths and the flaws of these two religions. And of course their common link: a strict, overpowering, bureaucracy. For Father Herrera and the Bishop are not unlike thousands of other aparatchiks, hungry for power and blindly following the faith.

On the other hand the Monsignor and the Mayor are a bit faithless, allowing for, in some cases thankful for, the existence of doubt. They are tolerant. And it is this tolerance that brings them together and allows their friendship to blossom. Tolerance....and a good deal of wine. In the end, of course, the bureaucrats win and both the Mayor and the Monsignor must escape.

This is one of Mr. Greene's lighter novels, lighter even than "Travels with my Aunt". The characters are relaxed, the scenes are picturesque and slow, and there is enough nice dry humor you make you laugh out loud. It's the Greene equivalent of Champagne, light, pleasant and mildly intoxicating. This compared to his other novels which are straight vodka. Highly recommend.

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Summary: The Don and Sancho Ride Again!
Review: Graham Greene is simply fantastic. This is a novel I waited a long time to read. I actually read Cervantes' "Don Quixote" first, in the very edition Greene cites, J.M. Cohen's translation in the Penguin Classics, so that I could pay adequate respect to Greene, and the spirit of his work.

Persecuted by self-doubt at being promoted to the clerical rank of monsignor, Father Quixote, a parish priest of El Toboso, and 'Sancho' Zancas, the former mayor of the town, go for a holiday before undertaking the next phase of their lives. In a novel concerned with trying to differentiate between fact and fiction, certainty and doubt, the two must leave the shelter of comfortable, structured belief and challenge each other's resolve, as well as gauge the world's response to those beliefs. Over the course of their adventures, they drink bottle upon bottle of wine and talk about their lives and their belief systems, Catholicism and Marxism, respectively.

In "Monsignor Quixote", Greene does a marvelous job creating complex, realistic, and emotionally involving characters. His Quixote and Sancho are indeed what one might expect if Cervantes' characters had descendants living in the mid-20th century. The novel, like that of Cervantes, achieves its brilliance through dialogue, with little attention to physical descriptions, aside from what is absolutely necessary to form an image.

I do not recall the last time so short a work (it is barely over 200 pages) gave me such cause to laugh, weep, and think so deeply. Though Greene's tone may favour Catholic sentiment, it is far from orthodox, and fit for a literate and thoughtful audience. My only problem with the novel upon finishing it was that it was not much, much longer.

Rating:
Summary: Humorous and beautiful modern tale
Review: Greene updates the tale of Don Quixote beutifully in this tale of a Quixote-like priest in fascist spain. This book is beuatifully written and deeply touching. I think it is Greene's most underrated novel.

Rating:
Summary: The essence of wisdom, peace and non-violent communication
Review: If I had to choose just one Graham Greene book to take to a desert island then this would be it. Its a timeless story of a friendship that grows between seemingly quite distinct personalities and intellects and through the narration of a series of engaging conversations, travel episodes and encounters brings us to its curiously sad but uplifting conclusion.

A great book in any language.

Regards,

Martyn R Jones

Rating:
Summary: AS EVER, GREENE IS FANTASTIC
Review: It's always a pleasure to read Graham Greene, and this is no exception. One of his last novels, published in 1982, "Monsignor Quixote" is a reworking of Cervantes' seminal tale. Greene tells the story of an awkward friendship between a Catholic priest and a Marxist ex-mayor. As they gradually discover, more holds them together than apart. The novel is mostly dialogue, and reads like a screenplay. What narrative there is sounds, more than ever, very much like Hemingway. Perhaps this is because the novel is set in Spain and addresses the profound satisfaction that we derive from the physical world--food, drink, sex--favorite topics of Hemingway. Greene's narration, as well as the dialogue and characterization, is top notch. My only complaint is that he relies too heavily upon ideas and dialectic, rather than storytelling. This is a "roman philosophique," or philosophical novel, a form that many do not enjoy. If it were more novelistic, and less didactic, it would be a great novel. Still, it's a very good one.

Rating:
Summary: Wine, Wisdom, and Windmills
Review: Listening to Monsignor Quixote, (unabridged on audio casette) I found myself instantly transported into the company of these remarkable characters. Green is a master of both dialogue and symbolism. This is the best G. Green work I have yet experienced.

Rating:
Summary: Wine, Wisdom, and Windmills
Review: Listening to Monsignor Quixote, (unabridged on audio casette) I found myself instantly transported into the company of these remarkable characters. Green is a master of both dialogue and symbolism. This is the best G. Green work I have yet experienced.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining, likeable, engaging and startlingly beautiful
Review: MONSIGNOR QUIXOTE by Graham Greene was thoroughly enjoyable, and touched, as some of Greene's better works are, with a divine stroke of love and genius. And I do mean, divine. It's hard to find the words to praise Greene enough. His novels are so well executed, so elegantly written, so touching and so unexpectedly changing. They read easily, are very accessible. This book references DON QUIXOTE by Miguel de Cervantes, so I was doubly engaged here, as I had just read it. This book is about a priest, Father Quixote, who lives in El Toboso, Spain. Through a happenstance act of kindness to a man in power in the Catholic Church in Rome, Father Quixote is made a Monsignor, much to his bishop's dismay. His bishop has never liked Father Quixote. Due to his "promotion" Father Quixote has some time to take for himself, and leaves El Toboso with the town's former mayor, who has lost his re-election bid, whose last name is Panza, just like the famous Don Quixote's squire, Sancho, so Father Quixote calls his friend Sancho. Like the first and second sally in Cervantes, Monsignor Quixote and Sancho go forth in the world and have adventures. What I found wonderful about this book was the discussion between these two men about Communism and religion. They trade books and references, and argue principles lightly and engagingly. What is true about both men as Greene writes them is that they are loving people. Sancho is more cynical, but he is kind and is genuinely friends with Monsignor Quixote, and the monsignor, for his part, is truly loving, naive and true. The end of the book is a surprising and stunningly beautiful apotheosis of the ideas expressed within. This is one of my favorite works by Greene, and reminded me in some ways of the life-changing END OF THE AFFAIR. I highly recommend it.