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 remember sitting on the hill in front of St Xavier del Bac and wondering about the priests whose ambition led them to build such an edifice in such a landscape, and I was not in favour, thinking of the labour and resources which could have been used in other ways to benefit the people directly. It is interesting to see this through Cather's lens. I don't necessarily agree with her perspective but I have spent a happy few days reading this book.
It is, for me, a lovely book which I will be happy to re-read in a few years.