Book Review: Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather

Normally I would wait to give the book review for book club until the day we meet, but I'm afraid I can't curb my enthusiasm for 2 more weeks.

I loved this book--for the 3rd time reading it. I wrote two papers about this book, and a couple of others by Cather, in graduate school. Cather is one of the truly good American writers. You almost get the feeling of reading poetry in her prose, every word is so carefully chosen and every sentence of meticulously constructed. Yet, her writing isn't difficult to read or understand and flows off the page almost in a dream like way.

Death Comes for the Archbishop is the story of two priests who go to "tame" the diocese of New Mexico. Their charge is to build churches and missions throughout the region and to bring the Catholic faith to the Native Americans. The story is based on the real lives of Fathers Lamy (Latour) and Machebeuf (Vaillant) and traces them from their arrival as young men to their deaths as old men. Vaillant is by far the more aggressive and hands on missionary, but Latour is more reflective and spiritual. His acceptance of the native faith and appreciation for the giving nature of the Mexicans impresses the reader.

Told in a vignette style, we meet the many faces and facets of life as a priest in the "wild west": The rich landowners, the native spirituality and unrest, the lawless man, the spiritual woman, the giving mother, the repentent sinner. They are all there. Nature provides the backdrop fo growth and development of all the characters as well as the church which seems to be the central theme for Father Latour--build the church and establish a permanence in the region.

Death Comes for the Archbishop is one of my favorite Cather books. I love her writing style as well as her character development. Her love of space and landscape and how it impacts the people involved is unparalleled.