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Death Comes for the Archbishop

Willa Cather

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Apr 06, 2017 Travis rated it liked it · review of another edition

It's difficult to classify this novel, which is not necessarily a problem. Death Comes for the Archbishop is not a plot-driven novel. One might venture to say that it's a character study, featuring the eponymous archbishop, Father Jean Latour, and his associate, Father Joseph Vaillant, but it's less a story about these two men than about their parish and parishioners in New Mexico (primarily), Arizona, Mexico, and Colorado. It could also fairly be labeled a picaresque, relating the adventures of It's difficult to classify this novel, which is not necessarily a problem. Death Comes for the Archbishop is not a plot-driven novel. One might venture to say that it's a character study, featuring the eponymous archbishop, Father Jean Latour, and his associate, Father Joseph Vaillant, but it's less a story about these two men than about their parish and parishioners in New Mexico (primarily), Arizona, Mexico, and Colorado. It could also fairly be labeled a picaresque, relating the adventures of the two protagonists as well as the stories of their parishioners and fellow clergymen in a series of interconnected pericopes.

In any case, the novel is well written and is never boring. Yet it is forgettable. Nothing in the character of the protagonists nor in their experiences nor in the tales of those they encounter in New Mexico is especially noteworthy or striking. Nor are there any great themes. The priests don't wrestle with the great religious, ethical, and philosophical questions, nor do the secular and clerical politics ascend beyond the practical and mundane. The novel is not a grand allegory, and it is bereft of agony, tragedy, comedy, mystery, or adventure. It is simply stories of the daily lives of two priests. And it is the sheer brilliance of Willa Cather that a work that is neither narratively fascinating nor intellectually compelling can still command the reader's attention.

I can't recommend Death Comes for the Archbishop to the average reader as particularly interesting reading. This would not be a great beach read. It's not a novel that will keep readers turning the pages in great expectation. While it is often featured on lists of the greatest novels in the Western canon, it lacks the literary heft of acclaimed classics like Huckleberry Finn, Crime and Punishment, and The Grapes of Wrath.

It's not a bad novel, though. I liked the characters. I enjoyed their various and sundry adventures. But a few years from now, will I remember anything significant from this novel? No. Will I even remember the name of the titular archbishop? I very much doubt it. Death Come for the Archbishop is good. It's just not great. ...more

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Apr 17, 2017 Sara rated it really liked it

Her writing is so damn beautiful that there is just no way I can do it justice here by trying to describe it. How, while reading, you are completely transported to the landscape she is describing. I grew up in the mountains and the deserts, so there was so much nostalgia in this book for me. There wasn't much of a plot with this, but for once I didn't care. It was so beautiful to read that I didn't care that we weren't really getting anywhere. ...more

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Apr 12, 2017 fcorsairs rated it liked it

Jan 25, 2018 Matthew Kilgore added it

Apr 12, 2017 Becky rated it really liked it

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