Monsignor Quixote
"A direct descendant of his famous namesake, Father Quixote is a humble parish priest. By chance he is advanced to Monsignor, resulting in furor in the bishopric. Quixote and his friend Sancho Zancas, the Communist ex-mayor of the village, leave for a pilgrimage across Spain."--Audio cassette container.
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2020–2023years
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- The dictionary. Specifically, a large one on a pedestal stand in the children's section of my local library.
I looked up my name, as one is wont to do as a child, and saw next to “Don,” an entry which read “Don Quixote, see Quixote, Don.” Wow! There was something with my name in it and it had a Q and an X! I, of course, turned to the Qs, read the entry, not only for “Quixote, Don” but also for “quixotic” and “quixotism” and thought, “I like the idea of being quixotic.”
I then, read the bowdlerized children's version of Don Quixote that they had in the children's section and returned to the book many times over the years that followed.
One day in high school, a friend who had graduated came by to visit the band teacher and had a book in his hand that he was reading, Monsignor Quixote by Graham Greene. He described it as “Don Quixote is a Catholic priest and Sancho Panza is the communist ex-mayor of El Toboso.” I went to the library the next day and checked out their copy of the book and loved it. I proceeded to read every book that the library had by Graham Greene and became imbued with his world view (it probably helped that I was inclined in that direction already) and it gradually led to my becoming Catholic 7 years later. My love of Greene also influenced me in becoming a writer (something to which I was already inclined) and he and J. D. Salinger are the two most obvious influences in my writing to this day.
- I first came to Greene via his novel, Monsignor Quixote. It was billed to me as, “Don Quixote is a Catholic priest and Sancho Panza is a communist.” As a 14-year-old fascinated by Catholicism and Marxism, that was enough to hook me. What catches my interest is the narratives of people on the margins of belonging/belief (which is something which has carried through into my own writing).
- Many people have a book they read in their teens that changed their outlook. For some it's 1984. For me it was Greene's "The Power and the Glory". It, and the questions it raised, are still with me.
Monsignor Quixote I can also recommend. The others I read I have forgotten, except for Brighton Rock which I didn't like.
As a sibling commenter has said, if you have any form of religious background or have seen that world, his books speak with a depth I think it would be difficult to grasp without that.
- I mean, if you want to know about the inner workings of Graham Greene's life, you're probably better off just reading his novels (the dividing line between his serious novels and his entertainments isn't as clear-cut as he made out).
Some personal favourites:
England Made Me: Interestingly enough for a novel written in 1935, about multinationals.
Brighton Rock: A vicious little tale of a small-town thug.
The Power and The Glory: A very, very catholic novel, but also a cracking thriller.
The End of the Affair: Another very catholic novel, but also very different.
The Quiet American: Hard to express exactly how good this one is. Vietnam, spies, and a huge indictment of "decent people".
Monsignor Quixote: Life after fascism, and a ridiculous priest who may, in fact, be a saint.
- My oldest book dates to the 18th century. It’s not my most valuable book (I’m not sure which is, but my guess would be the signed limited edition of Graham Greene’s Monsignor Quixote would be it).
I keep the valuable books on a special shelf so that after I die, my kids will know that those books should probably not be sent to the library book sale.
- I went to Greene's old school (where his father had been headmaster).
It's interesting how much stuff from the school pops up in his novels - from the school motto in "Monsignor Quixote" to the route walked from the school in "The Captain and the Enemy".
Minor anecdote: He visited the school once, and I remember seeing him stop at a corner and turn to look directly at me. Only in retrospect do I realise that he may have been looking across the decades at me as he might have been himself (the architecture and uniform hadn't changed much).
If you're looking for a light read then I recommend "Our Man in Havana" as a taster of Greene. It's amusing and less imbued with the claustrophobia of his more serious novels.
