A friend at the Y actually recommended this book to me, saying Cather is one of the best descriptive writers he's ever read. A reviewer I read somewhere (maybe here) says that she paints a picture in words of the Southwest as Georgia Okeefe painted it on canvas. Cather is a wonderful descriptive writer, but much more; this is an absolutely marvelous book, a kind of perfect small novel. New Mexico at that time was inhabited mostly by Mexicans and Native Americans, and a pair of bishops from France come to minister to them. The landscape is lovingly described, and the people are beautifully characterized. I would call this a religious novel in the deepest sense. I don't know how Cather knew so much about these people, but she writes with real authority. In a way this is a novel and in a way a book of interconnected stories; it's named for the final story/chapter in the book, and I'm not sure the title is entirely apt. Death does come at the end, but this book is about life, about lives beautifully lived. I immediately bought the first Library of America volume for Cather. I now want to read her pioneer trilogy.