Departure to Spain- Part 1 of 2 complete!

I have completed Part 1 of Don Quixote, but there is still Part  II to read on the plane. It is the second part that was published exactly 400 years ago in 1615 and which is cause for many celebrations, exhibitions, and events throughout all of Spain this year. There seems to be a lot happening in Madrid, but I doubt we will get to all of it since we are there first and foremost to see friends and family. However, we will do our best to see as much as we can, and knowing my husband, that will include the maximum number of museums.


So, we leave to Spain tomorrow on the 1st of July, but I did not accomplish my goal to finish the novel. However, in my defense, I was trying very hard to brush up on and polish my very rusty Spanish before this two immersion course with family. I have gone back through my old Spanish textbook and flipped through the pages of 500 Verbs, but there is never enough time or room in my brain to truly master the language. I need constant practice and study. It takes me time to really learn something, and I need more to be fluent. Still, I think I am leaving in a good place for now. I should be able to communicate, and while my conjugations will almost certainly always be wrong, they will be understood. We shall see.

As for the novel, it has continued to amuse and entertain. However, I have to say I was struck by two main things as I read this first part.

First, I was surprised by the almost crude, slapstick type, physical humor in the novel. I mean this in the best way. It is almost along the lines of The Three Stooges or Charlie Chaplin, or even today's humorists like Will Ferrel, who create these elaborate, ridiculous scenarios of absurdity. What I enjoyed most as I read these passages was the thought that boys would love to read this part of the novel. Teaching teenagers, I know boys are the hardest to get interested in reading, especially classical novels or anything that appears girly. If I could just convince them to try this one out, then they might see the humor and comedy in it. Maybe they could see an intelligent novel can be a funny one too.

The part that struck me most in this vain was after Don Quixote attacks a flock of sheep (mistaking it for an army) and is consequently attacked by the shepherds who have sling shots full of stones. These knock out some of his teeth. So, he asks Sancho to come look at his teeth. What Sancho does not see is that Don Quixote has just taken a swig of a magical healing potion (obviously, not really one but a rather odd mix of herbs and oils)  that when taken the last time caused don Quixote to immediately throw it back up. This time is no different, except Sancho is looking in his mouth at the exact time Don Quixote throws up. This so disgusts Sancho that he then throws up back on Don Quixote. It is disgusting and gross, but I did actually laugh out loud when I read this part. It was so unexpected, and it was just orchestrated so perfectly. This is not usually my cup of tea, but it just worked so well in the context of the novel.

Second, what I did not expect were the inserted novellas throughout the second half of the novel. These mini stories within the novel felt to me like plays that he had written and then inserted into the novel. He does it ingeniously, without doubt, and manages to weave all the narratives together. It is reminiscent of Love Actually where all the story lines come together and end happily. It is true that each novella reminds me very much of a Shakespearean comedy, and it is no wonder Shakespeare based a play on one of these novellas, Cardenio.Unfortunately, I sometimes felt that too much time was taken from Don Quixote, as was apparently the critique of others at the time as suggested by one of the annotations in my edition. Also, it gets a bit out of hand, to extreme proportions, with a whole cast of young lovers and drama. But, I suppose, that is partly the design. They are fun little digressions from the main story, but there are perhaps too many people crowded into one little in in the middle of La Mancha!

On my list to read...

Anyways, I will go into more details later, but these were my first overall impressions from the first part of the novel. I should have some more reading time on the loooong flight tomorrow, and then our journey to La Mancha starts on Saturday!