“He turned and looked through the three of them as though they were made of glass.”
A quintessential Greene sentence in a less quintessential Greene novel: This is like returning to the home key. This reader only feels the chill.
The nonexistent wine in the nonexistent chalice in the hands of an offspring of a fictional character: The duel between fact and fiction goes on and on to this day.
Read the last paragraph of the novel alongside the final few lines of Don Quixote: “For my only desire has been to have people reject and despise the false and nonsensical histories of the books of chivalry, which are already stumbling over the history of my true Don Quixote, and will undoubtedly fall to the ground. Vale.” That adjective “true” stands out: arguing for fiction and giving birth to Monsignor Quixote and many other fictional offspring of the Don.
Join us on December 3 for a virtual discussion of Monsignor Quixote with Yiyun Li.
Sancho to Father Leopoldo: "It would take too long to explain now."
For me, this could be the motto of the whole novel! The inexplicable, mysterious, and irreducibly complicated.
So many quotable lines in this chapter - first and foremost that last paragraph. But here's one folks might have missed: "...in dark corners loom the wooden figures of popes and of the knights whose order founded the monastery. They take on an appearance of life, as sad memories do, when the dark has fallen."
I got behind and have only caught up today, so I didn't post much this time around. But I have read all of your insightful comments - thank you for your careful reads. I love reading with all of you!