Quim Monzo is the foremost Catalan writer of his generation and has been translated into over a dozen languages. "The Enormity of the Tragedy" is regarded by many as his greatest work. At once a dirty joke and a high brow novel, a baudy tale and an exquisite pastiche, "The Enormity"...tells the bizarre story of Ramon Maria. Ramon is a balding middle aged widower who works as a trumpet player in a burlesque show band. He lives with a stepdaughter who hates him in a house full of books left over from his failed publishing company. One night, having finally managed to persuade the lovely Maria Eugenia, leading lady of the burlesque show, to take him home with her Ramon Maria finds himself too drunk and nervous to adequately do his duty. Meanwhile his step daughter XXXXXX is busy stealing Ramon Maria's money and discovering the first joys and pains of adolescent love. When Ramon Maria wakes up the next day, he finds that his body has compensated for its earlier lethargy by bequeathing the puzzled Don Juan with a massive, never ending erection.
As he struggles with the ins and outs of his new condition, one that apparently makes him more attractive to the opposite sex than he has ever been, XXXXXXX's experience with men and hatred of Ramon grow concurrently until finally she resolves to kill her stepfather and live in peace at last...But a straightforward resume of the plot doesn't do justice to a novel that has been hailed across Europe as a masterpiece of literary parody. Newcomers are bound to find Quim Monzo's work funny, endearing and of searing intelligence.