This wicked, passionate and extremely funny book can be read as Goytisolo's farewell to the priests, generals and sanctimonious moralizers who ruled his native land ... though difficult and allusive, it is worth the effort, since Goytisolo is Spain's greatest modern novelist -- John Butt * Daily Telegraph *Juan Goytisolo has spent the past thirty-five years in exile doing to the Spanish novel what Bunuel did to the cinema, Picasso, Miro and Dali to painting and Lorca to the theatre and in poetry * The Times *Count Julian is the Finnegan's Wake of the south, but shorter, hotter, crosser and a bit more readable * Observer *