Book Review: Monsignor Quixote by Graham Quixote

Father Quixote is a catholic priest in the small town of El Toboso. He is kind to the visiting Bishop of Motopo, plying him with many drinks to ensure the bishop’s brief soujourn in the area is a happy one.

Father Quixote is surprised to receive a letter through the post a few weeks later indicating he’s been promoted to the level of a Monsignor as recommended by the Bishop of Motopo. Recently, his friend the Communist mayor of El Toboso has lost a mayoral election and is now the ex-mayor of El Toboso. His local bishop decides to replace Father Quixote with Father Herrera, who is very strait-laced and conservative. The ex-mayor has time on his hands and Monsignor Quixote has to obtain some purple socks so he can prove to people he is a proper Monsignor. Father Quixote and the ex-mayor, a descendant of Sancho Panza and called Sancho by Quixote, head to Madrid in Quixote’s old Seat car, nicknamed Rocinante.

What follows is a proper adventure with the two men drinking lots of Manchegan wine, sausage, and cheese as they watch a pornographic film, stay at a brothel, and help a fugitive from the law escape the clutches of The Guardia. Eventually, having visited Madrid, Valladolid, Salamanca, and Leon the Guardia apprehend a sleeping Monsignor Quixote and return him to El Toboso. His bishop berates him and Father Herrera locks away his clothes so he can’t leave.

However, Sancho returns in Rocinante and Quixote makes his escape with him towards the North-West of Spain. I won’t reveal more than this.

The book is wonderful and reveals profound truths about the triumph of the human spirit and how trying to do the best thing for people doesn’t always turn out the way you expected.

Superb and recommended.