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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Greene vs Greene, January 19, 2002
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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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Don and Sancho Ride Again!, July 17, 2000
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.
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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Don Quixote and Sancho will live on, January 24, 2001
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.
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