Death Comes for the Archbishop (Vintage Classics)
by Willa Cather
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Read in June, 2008
80 pages in or so and now I feel the need to say a few words.
How does one write a western about missionaries in New Mexico? I think it's foolish to assume that the conventions of the western narrative would be applied in such a story. But if you were to mix some of the familiar tropes of the western (The purifier comes to settle the land and the wild lawless society, a narrative much like Shane... or High Planes Drifter) with a biblical theme, in this case the problem presented at the Pent...more
How does one write a western about missionaries in New Mexico? I think it's foolish to assume that the conventions of the western narrative would be applied in such a story. But if you were to mix some of the familiar tropes of the western (The purifier comes to settle the land and the wild lawless society, a narrative much like Shane... or High Planes Drifter) with a biblical theme, in this case the problem presented at the Pent...more
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Read in May, 2007
recommends it for:
anyone who loves the beauty of the southwest or is interested in the lives of early missionaries
Recommended by a tour guide in Santa Fe who said the descriptions of the people and place were dead on.
This is my first Willa Cather and I have high praise for her story-telling ability. This novel was odd - I did not have a strong liking for the characters but I was compelled to keep reading. This compulsion did not come from any great suspensful plot, instead the plot (if you could even call it that) was nothing more than the string of completely unrelated events that happen to a person du...more
This is my first Willa Cather and I have high praise for her story-telling ability. This novel was odd - I did not have a strong liking for the characters but I was compelled to keep reading. This compulsion did not come from any great suspensful plot, instead the plot (if you could even call it that) was nothing more than the string of completely unrelated events that happen to a person du...more
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Read in May, 2008
Though the sympathies of the narrator are clearly with the French missionaries, Cather writes in such a way that we can see the story from the viewpoint of characters under the jurisdiction of Father Latour and Father Vaillant.
I'm intrigued by the efficiency of Cather's narrative: she blows through events that other novelists would set out moment-by-moment. For instance, the two priests encounter injustice in every episode, but even when the narrator bothers to detail these situations, t...more
I'm intrigued by the efficiency of Cather's narrative: she blows through events that other novelists would set out moment-by-moment. For instance, the two priests encounter injustice in every episode, but even when the narrator bothers to detail these situations, t...more
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My bias on this review is that I LOVE Willa Cather's writing. I always feel a bit nervous recommending her books because the story lines aren't usually too thrilling. But, man, can this woman paint a picture. I'm living in Southern Arizona right now and this book takes place in the desert of New Mexico in the 1800s. She described my scenery so well and so lovingly that I'm seeing where I'm living much better than before and I think that is rad.
The book is more a compilation of short stori...more
The book is more a compilation of short stori...more
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Whenever I think about Willa Cather, I get angry. Which is a shame, because I love her stories and novels more than some of my family members. But I do get angry: Cather was writing at the same time as Hemingway and Fitzgerald and all those hard-drinking narcissists, but when people talk about the teens and twenties, Cather's name only gets mentioned parenthetically. "(Oh, and there was this chick who wrote stuff about, like, New Mexico and Nebraska. She was a total downer. Didn't like to p...more
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Read in January, 2008
recommends it for:
everyone
My respect for the writing of Willa Cather only increases. Somehow this novel had passed me by. It is a pleasure to read a story so well-written and calm. It gives the impression of a series of limpid pools - quiet description of lives spent in devotion to an ideal, lovely descriptions of the landscape of the Southwest. The book should be viewed in the context of the social mores of the time - her view of native Americans and Mexicans is coloured by the time in which she lived and wrote. I remem...more
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Read in February, 2008
If a novelist can be considered a worship leader, Willa Cather fits the bill. It is true to say that reading this book was a 'worship experience' for me.
This book is simply a great story, well told. Plus, it explored a time and place with which I am fairly unfamiliar - the New Mexico frontier in the mid-19th century. It is a book about being a missionary, and in this case, a picture is painted not of marauding colonialists or over-zealous invaders, but of kind-hearted, self-sacrificing, lovers...more
This book is simply a great story, well told. Plus, it explored a time and place with which I am fairly unfamiliar - the New Mexico frontier in the mid-19th century. It is a book about being a missionary, and in this case, a picture is painted not of marauding colonialists or over-zealous invaders, but of kind-hearted, self-sacrificing, lovers...more
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Bishop Latour looks back on his life... the book is drenched in a clear, golden light, probably very similar to the light in New Mexico.
Lawrence Weschler recently observed that there is a Willa Cather resurgence going on. It makes sense. Cather has a talent for arc--she compresses an incredible range of emotion, a whole short story, into a memory that takes up two paragraphs. There are also longer stories embedded within the narrative--a character will just pause to recount something, and t...more
Lawrence Weschler recently observed that there is a Willa Cather resurgence going on. It makes sense. Cather has a talent for arc--she compresses an incredible range of emotion, a whole short story, into a memory that takes up two paragraphs. There are also longer stories embedded within the narrative--a character will just pause to recount something, and t...more
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Read in January, 2005
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Re-read on the occasion of my first trip to Santa Fe.
I often compare _Death Comes for the Archbishop_ to a very "Eastern" novel like _The Great Gatsby_, which occurs within a short span of time and among people whose major characteristic is their complete lack of adult values. It's amazingly rare to write concretely about a lifetime of patient striving towards some accretive goal -- where the greatest "incidents" might be moments of inner doubt, minor misunderstandings w...more
I often compare _Death Comes for the Archbishop_ to a very "Eastern" novel like _The Great Gatsby_, which occurs within a short span of time and among people whose major characteristic is their complete lack of adult values. It's amazingly rare to write concretely about a lifetime of patient striving towards some accretive goal -- where the greatest "incidents" might be moments of inner doubt, minor misunderstandings w...more
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Read in June, 2007
This novel seemed more like a series of vignettes, though it did travel in a linear fashion. I thought that served to illustrate just how much Bishop Latour accomplished in his nearly 40 years in New Mexico. Aside from Latour and his vicar Father Vaillant, few characters play a major enough role for the reader to become attached to them. The relationship between Latour and Vaillant is wonderfully described (albeit in a piecemeal fashion) and I really liked their very different personalities, yet...more
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recommends it for:
all
Not only the best Cather, but up there with the best books. Ever. I find it hard to say why exactly, but it has a deep, yet unsentimental humanity to it. It also tends to make me cry, which is quite rare. It's lived in in its portrayal of the combination of spiritual yearnings and bodily needs (food, rest). It's like _O Pioneers!_, but nicer, quieter, gentler. It could easily have blown away like dust, but its very insubstantiality oddly gives it weight. In some ways, it would go very nicely wit...more
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Read in May, 2007
Near the end of her career, Cather entered a phase of historical and religious fiction, and this novel is her celebration of the lives of the French Catholic priest who labored to civilize and colonize the American Southwest. Based largely on the true story of the first Archbishop of New Mexico, Cather presents a collection of vignettes and short stories told about and by those who struggled to survive in the desert. The novel also tells the heterosocial love story of two priest who dedicate the...more
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Yet another book that wasn't as good as I remembered it. This is the story of two priests who spend their lives in the Southwest, working to establish the Catholic faith amongst the Mexicans and Native Americans. It has its moments of brilliance (it takes place over many years, so it travels along fairly quickly), but it also unintentionally demonstrates what was so wrong about western expansion and the expansion of Christianity. Thank god this book has never been made into a movie - I can on...more
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Read in January, 1998
In many of her novels, Cather explores the world of male friendship in which men frequently blurred the lines between intimacy and eroticism (e.g., her Pulitzer Prize-winning One of Ours, as well as The Professor's House). While I agree with many of the overviews of this novel given by some other readers, one cannot overlook the way Cather erotically charges the relationship between Latour and Valliant. This is integral to understanding their knotty relationship, which Cather links...more
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Read in February, 1957
recommends it for:
Every who loves literature and Willa Cather
Before I read My Antonia, I read Death Comes for the Archbishop. I had the Asian Flu at the time. So,I sat in my dormatory bed at New Mexico A&M and read this book. I fell into the story so completely and I have cherished ever sense. My tattered copy follows me everywhere I go. The Bishop is such a real and true person that when he was lost to us I could only weep. This book led me to Willa Cather. Oh Pioneers and My Antonia belong in the celestial throng of great books, and Death Comes for ...more
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Read in August, 2007
Read this while I was travelling in the areas of New Mexico detailed here. Chronicles the life, however mundane, of a French archbishop sent to New Mexico in 1851. It's clear that Cather wasn't interested in a page turner. I think she was going for something that more closely resembles the actual lived life: quiet and mysterious in its everyday-ness. Not for everyone. But definitely for, say, those who really liked all the scenes in Anna Karenina when Levin cuts the wheat. My kind of book.
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Read in January, 2000
Many readers may find this book moves to slowly. But I found Willa Cather's writing exquisite as she carefully paints a picture of the southwestern in starting 1850s as she follows the life of Father Jean Marie Latour living simply in the desert ruled by American law and Mexican and Indian customs. I was intrigued when I read that Willa Cather's inspiration for this novel came from viewing a painting or set of paintings in a museum. You can feel the painting of the scenery in her words.
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Read in January, 1982
In my opinion, this book just about ties "My Antonia" as Cather's best book. The writing style is tighter, every word as perfectly selected as the brush strokes on the Mona Lisa. A beautiful collection of stories based loosely on the life of Archbishop Lamy, the first Archbishop of Santa Fe, this short novel honors the beauties and challenges of life in 1800s New Mexico. Along with "My Antonia", I probably know most of this book by heart. A rich rewarding experience for an
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This book has what is probably one of the most racist characterizations ever to appear in a book (as celebrated as this. Catha has a rather dated sense of the novel. That she appeared on the same list of 100 Greates Novels of the 20th Century with authors like Woolf seemed just a bit blasphemous. I assume people read this for the local color (the Southwest) and the (bad) history. I remember highlighting some laughably bad passages in this book when I read it.
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