Take a photo of a barcode or cover
cjj07714 's review for:
Monsignor Quixote
by Graham Greene
I enjoyed this book, and recommend reading the Cervantes beforehand. This follows the plot very similarly and heavily references the original work.
The juxtaposition of a priest and communist is interesting, and shows the age in which it was written (80s), but noticeably the common referrals to the old and new Mass (especially at the end in the monastery) was moving, in terms of the priest having to update his theology into this new world; defending his position to the communist, as well as to himself.
It's interesting to read something contemporary about the changes in the Church at that time.
"'But the voice of the Church doesn't date, Sancho.'
'Oh yes, father, it does. Your second Vatican council put even St John out of date.'" p. 20
"'You could have managers over your brickworks and your armament firms, you could put them in charge of your gas and electricity, but you can't let them manage a vineyard.'
'Why Senor Diego?'
'A vine is alive like a flower or a bird. It is not something made by man - man can only help it to live - or to die,' he added with a deep melancholy, so that his face lost all expression. He had shut his face, as a man shuts a book which he finds he doesn't wish to read." p.160
"It was an odd thing, but he knew that he could never communicate with Father Herrera on anything which touched the religion they were supposed to share. Father Herrera was in favour of the new Mass, and one evening at the end of a rather silent dinner Father Quixote had been unwise enough to tell him how at the end of Mass he had the habit of silently speaking the words of St John's Gospel which had been removed from the Liturgy.
'Ah, poetry,' Father Herrera had replied with a note of disapproval." p.48
The juxtaposition of a priest and communist is interesting, and shows the age in which it was written (80s), but noticeably the common referrals to the old and new Mass (especially at the end in the monastery) was moving, in terms of the priest having to update his theology into this new world; defending his position to the communist, as well as to himself.
It's interesting to read something contemporary about the changes in the Church at that time.
"'But the voice of the Church doesn't date, Sancho.'
'Oh yes, father, it does. Your second Vatican council put even St John out of date.'" p. 20
"'You could have managers over your brickworks and your armament firms, you could put them in charge of your gas and electricity, but you can't let them manage a vineyard.'
'Why Senor Diego?'
'A vine is alive like a flower or a bird. It is not something made by man - man can only help it to live - or to die,' he added with a deep melancholy, so that his face lost all expression. He had shut his face, as a man shuts a book which he finds he doesn't wish to read." p.160
"It was an odd thing, but he knew that he could never communicate with Father Herrera on anything which touched the religion they were supposed to share. Father Herrera was in favour of the new Mass, and one evening at the end of a rather silent dinner Father Quixote had been unwise enough to tell him how at the end of Mass he had the habit of silently speaking the words of St John's Gospel which had been removed from the Liturgy.
'Ah, poetry,' Father Herrera had replied with a note of disapproval." p.48