Monsignor Quixote

This is one of Greene's stories about faith. Monsignor Quixote is a priest in a small Spanish village, promoted to monsignor after a visit by a traveling bishop. The bishop also sends Quixote out from his small village, on a journey paralleling that of his namesake. Quixote is accompanied by the village's communist ex-mayor, known as Sancho. And of course, they travel in Quixote's car, Rocinante.

Much of the story is a dialogue between Quixote and Sancho, exploring on one side Quixote's faith in catholicism and on the other Sancho's in communism. Greene himself had converted to catholicism and later become interested in communism, but may have been disillusioned by both by the time of this book (1982). The dialogue between Quixote and show more Sancho is Green's own dialogue with himself about faith. What Quixote gets, and what sets him, in quixotic-fashion, against the catholic officials, is that faith destroys itself when it becomes certainty. Certainty is mechanical, deterministic, without challenge. Faith is constantly challenged, constantly tempted, requiring active belief to maintain. As he says, "How can I pray to resist evil when I am not even tempted? There is no virtue in such a prayer."

Quixote tries to convey his insight to Sancho as their conversation and their adventures unfold. Sancho of course responds that a communist must act; he can never remain suspended between belief and doubt. You must act with certainty, regardless of doubts. In the end Sancho and Quixote have found their common ground -- Quixote reads the Communist Manifesto and finds it surprisingly conformable in some ways to his faith, and Sancho recalls his catholic youth, and even, at the end of the story, accepts a kind of communion from Quixote, maybe a communion in ideals.

Quixote's journey ends in an ambiguous self-destruction, similar to Cervantes' Quixote. He appears, to the catholic officials, to have lost his mind, but, to himself, he is practicing the ideals of Christianity, what he has learned by reading and reflecting on his books, just as Cervantes' Quixote read and reflected on books of chivalry. show less

I haven't read Don Quixote, so maybe I'm not getting the full depth of the references, but this seemed like a joke that got extended way past the point of being funny-a literary SNL skit that had about 20 seconds of humor tops. Father Quixote is a simple Spanish priest with a famous last name. He gets promoted to Monsignor through a chance encounter with a bishop and decides to go on a trip around Spain in his old car "Rocinante' with his friend the Communist ex-Mayor, who he calls Sancho. They drive, drink wine, argue about Catholicism and Marxist, drink some more, argue about the state of Franco's soul, get in trouble with the law, and drink more. It's bleak in a Greene-ian way, but out of habit rather than any good reason. Greene show more seems to be having a conversation trying to square his Roman Catholicism and his Leftist, but I'm not sure anybody should listen. Read The Quiet American instead. show less

One of the insights I have gained from reading Greene is that we do not see eye to eye when it comes to being fascinated by religion. It is a topic that holds little interest for me. Unfortunately, Monsignor Quixote is very much focused on the "religious".

I'm describing the topic the "religious" because at the heart of the book is a dialogue between Monsignor Quixote, a Spanish priest, and Sancho, who used to be the major of the Monsignor's home town. Sancho is a communist whose faith in Marx, Engels, and Lenin is as strong as the Monsignor's in the holy trinity.

What Greene sets out to do is to throw both characters together on a journey through Spain in the same manner that Cervantes did with his characters.
In the process, Quixote show more and Sancho discuss different aspects of life from the Catholic and the communist angles - sometimes with humorous outcomes:

"What puzzles me, friend, is how you can believe in so many incompatible ideas. For example, the Trinity. It’s worse than higher mathematics. Can you explain the Trinity to me? It was more than they could do in Salamanca.’
‘I can try.’
‘Try then.’
‘You see these bottles?’
‘Of course.’
‘Two bottles equal in size. The wine they contained was of the same substance and it was born at the same time. There you have God the Father and God the Son and there, in the half bottle, God the Holy Ghost. Same substance. Same birth. They’re inseparable. Whoever partakes of one partakes of all three.’
‘I was never even in Salamanca able to see the point of the Holy Ghost. He has always seemed to me a bit redundant.’
‘We were not satisfied with two bottles, were we? That half bottle gave us the extra spark of life we both needed. We wouldn’t have been so happy without it. Perhaps we wouldn’t have had the courage to continue our journey. Even our friendship might have ceased without the Holy Spirit.’

No question, Greene does create a satirical, well written discourse. However, the topics of conversation and the patterns of conversation get repetitive very quickly - revolving around the wine, purple socks, and for some reason there seems to be a lot of discussion of birth control.

Having progressed to about the half-way point, I had my fill of circular discussions and even the odd self-reverential mention of the "whisky priest" (featured in Greene's The Power and the Glory), and skimmed through the rest of the book.

I'm glad I did. I love Greene's work but not even for him will I sit through something that is not only dull and moving at snail's pace but also utterly unoriginal.
Unoriginal not because Greene is re-imagining the characters and plot of Cervantes' work but unoriginal because I grew up watching a series of films featuring a Catholic priest called Don Camillo quarrelling with a communist mayor called Peppone - which really is exactly the same plot as Greene's.

The Don Camillo stories were created by Italian author [a:Giovannino Guareschi|37712|Giovannino Guareschi|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1300990781p2/37712.jpg] (1908–68), and are highly entertaining. Unlike Greene, Guareschi does not dwell on religious or political theory but focuses on the humanity that both characters, priest and mayor, try to encourage in their respective flocks. show less

Monsignor Quixote, a late novel by Graham Greene, has been on my TBR since about 2008, when Readings had a sale of its Vintage Classics. There are four of these Vintage Classics in my list of #20BooksofWinter, and more sprinkled throughout the TBR. I had a rush of blood to the head because so many of them were listed in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die...
But Monsignor Quixote isn't listed in 1001 Books, and the somewhat ambivalent Introduction by Henry Shukman in my edition suggests (so confidently!) why this might be so. Shukman declares that Greene is not the easiest writer to approach today (i.e. 2006); that arguably Greene's religion does him a disservice as a writer; he is an avowedly unpoetical writer of prose; he is one of show more the least visual fiction writers and his style, despite being so pared down, is also just a little dated.
Although Shukman has some kinder things to say about the preoccupations of the novel and its theme of doubt and friendship, by the time I'd finished this Intro, I had a Bad Feeling about Monsignor Quixote and a strong suspicion that I might have wasted my $12.95, on special or not!
Fortunately, I enjoyed it immensely. With its episodic framework and comic juxtaposition of a communist mayor and a parish priest in small town Spain, it had echoes of Giovannino Guareschi's The Little World of Don Camillo (1950), which I read as a girl (and still have on my shelves, the 1954 Victor Gollancz edition, with an inscription that shows it is one of a very few books that travelled with us to Australia.) So although I appreciated Greene's clever homage to Cervantes Don Quixote, (1605, see (if you have the stamina) my bemused and excessively long 'review') I related to the novel as a Thinking Person's comedy.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2025/06/17/monsignor-quixote-1982-by-graham-greene/ show less

This proved a lively tandem read with the Mrs. A priest is taking a sightseeing drive through Spain and winds up in the company of a communist politician. Atrocity studies are compared, as if Torquemada and Stalin can be discussed over a quaint lunch. What, they can? My mistake. This is My Dinner With Andre on a more political bend. Given its fluidity, I'd recommend it to just about anyone, despite it being second-tier Greene.

A road movie of a book. Inspired by Cervantes Don Quixote and probably by jack Kerouac's road novels. Well wriitten and a novel that manages to be both extremely amusing and provocative. It has a racy readable style all of its own. It is difficult not to read this in one sitting. Spain comes to life, the countryside and the people. However it feels outdated today and must have felt outdated even when it was published in the 1980's. It is a curious mix of an innocent abroad in a world that has sinister overtones, but these never intrude into the life and thoughts of Monsignor Quixote. A balancing act that is superbely managed by the author. An excellent read

Most of the Graham Greene I have read over the years has been serious stuff. Monsignor Quixote by contrast is a sometimes delightful, sometimes serious little story that very gently pokes at things. Serious, but told in a somewhat comic way. Our modern Man of La Mancha sets off with Sancho in Spain, circa 1980. He doesn't dream the impossible dream. He's not sure where he's going. Various places flit through his mind. Father Quixote, newly appointed a Monsignor, sets off perhaps to find himself, rediscover his beliefs and faith and have some interesting conversations with his companion Sancho. Some of the conversations work better than others that get a little tedious, with it mostly being communism vs the Catholic Church, or elements show more of faith and belief, but overall, "Good stuff." show less