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Summary: The landscape itself plays a major role in the story
Review: Based on two real life French Catholic priests who were sent to the American Southwest in 1851, Willa Cather's 1927 novel captures the essence of their experiences. The Mexican people, formerly ruled by Spain, had been Catholic for centuries and welcomed the Bishop, Jean Marie Latour, and his Vicar, Father Joseph. As the two men travel through the countryside, it is clear that the landscape itself is a major character in this novel. Ms. Cather's descriptions brought me right there and I could almost breath the perfume of the earth as well as feel the impact of the mountains of rock and open desert.In what reads like a series of short stories, the priests travel throughout the area and meet a wide variety of people along the way. Always, their adventures take on mythical and religious significance, such as when Father Latour finds himself quite lost and then sees a juniper tree in the shape of a cross that leads him to food and shelter. Each of these stories has a crisis and each crisis is answered by a religious experience. This deepens the faith of the two priests who share their common religious feelings even though they have very different personalities. Ms. Cather had the uncanny ability to capture exactly what each character felt and let the reader experience it moment to moment. Her detailed descriptions are many faceted. For example she uses the character of Kit Carson to show both gentleness and compassion as well as vile cruelty to the Indians. Always, she just lays out the story and lets the reader make his or her own judgments. One of the problems I had with the book was my own desire to have the priests confront some difficult choice. That didn't happen. Their faith was always there. And, if there were any demons for them to conquer, it might have been a very subtle pride in what they were doing. In my mind, it made them just a little too perfect to identify with. This, however, was obviously not the author's intention which was to tell the tale as she saw it, filled with simple miracles and a loving testament to these two men whose impact can still be felt centuries later. It was a good book. I recommend it.
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Summary: Delicious
Review: Each sentence is truly delicious. Reading this book feels like an honor. Finishing it feels like being with a good friend right before they have to leave for an extended time...ya just don't want it to end
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Summary: A Disappointment for a Cather Fan
Review: I came to this book with enthusiasm. My Antonia is one of my all time favorites and O Pioneers right up there. This was a major disppointment. The characters (2) were not developed nearly as well as the characters in Cather's other books. The characters make the Ms Cather's other works. The Archbishop particularly is never filled out. I found him very unsympathic. I enjoyed his Vicar and wished there was more of him. In fact at one point I thought it would be a much better book had he been the primary charcacter. As I neared the end of the book I came to this site to see if there was any historical basis to the book. At first I was pleased to learn that it is based upon the lives of these two characters. Then I became disappointed again. As a history or biography it is truly lacking. I find it hard to classify this as a "classic". I find it many grades below My Antonia and O Pioneers.
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Summary: God in the American Southwest
Review: Willa Cather's novels divide into three periods. Her early novels including O Pioneers and My Antonia focus on strong individuals, primarily women, who succeed, if only at great cost, in mastering the American midwest. Her middle period novels such as Luch Gayheart and A Lost Lady also take place on the Nebraska plains. They also feature women as main characters. They emphasize more than do the earlier books a sense of loss and disillusion and the need for the salvation of religion. Cather's late style is exemplified in Death Comes for the Archbishop, written in 1927. The protagonists in this book are primarily men. This book is a historical novel and takes place in the American Southwest, with Santa Fe as the center beginning in the 1850's and continuing through the end of the 19th Century. The heros of the book are two Catholic priests, Father Jean Latour and Father Joseph Vailant who have been friends from their youth in the seminary in France. They are sent to New Mexico to bring Catholicism to the developing American territory. The novel is based on the letters of priests and missionaries in the area at the time together with Cather's own experiences and the work of her imagination. The novel is full of descriptions of the landscape of the American southwest, its distances, bleakness, deserts, frost, wind, cold, and Pueblos. There are descriptions of the people in the area at time, particularly Mexicans and Indians. Kit Carson also has an important role in the book. We see a great deal of the two protagonists as they struggle externally to bring the teachings of the Church to life and internally with their own hearts and spiritual development. The novel is static and episodic in character. It doesn't have much in the way of a continuous plot. Its theme is the development of America and the role of religion and the religious life in its development. In a letter to the Catholic magazine Commonweal written after the book's publication Cather emphasised her desire to write about of the importance of religion in America, particularly the development of the American Southwest. She believed that there was a tendency to focus too much on economic pressure as the moving factor in American expansion and focused on one of the religious traditions which shaped our country, and was a particular force in the Southwest. Cather herself was not a Catholic but her book shows a great deal of sympathy and I think understanding of this particular faith. I think Cather properly focused on religion and its role in the United States and that today, as in her day, we tend, to our detriment, to shy away from considering religion in this manner. The story of the inner lives of the priests, of their friendship, and of their contrasts to each other is poignantly and well told. This is a book that deserves its place as an American classic.
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Summary: An Interesting Look at How Nature Affects the Soul
Review: In Death Comes for the Archbishop, Willa Cather makes a powerful statement about nature's impact on a person's development. Her mechanism for making this statement is a series of vignettes about the life of Archbishop Jean Latour. At first, there seems to be little connection between these stories, other than they detail Latour's work in bringing the Santa Fe Diocese into conformance with the mainstream Roman Catholic Church. However, nature plays a major role in each vignette. From the opening outdoor dinner of the Cardinals to the landscape Latour passes as he makes his way to his deathbed, nature is shown playing an important part in defining the choices that each character makes. No character has their personality more strongly refined by their exposure to nature than Archbishop Latour. The Archbishop is shown at the beginning of the book as clearly being most comfortable within the structure of the Church, to the point that he sleeps in a church's ruins rather than in an Indian pueblo. However, by the end of the book, Latour is portrayed walking among the hillsides around Santa Fe and perfecting his garden. While Latour never abandons his version of Catholicism, he does find that a respect for nature is complementary and enriching to his faith. Thus, his passing is not the tragic or pathetic death associated with someone who refused to change. Instead, it is a peaceful, uplifting, and natural end. Cather's greatest triumph is to convey the changing power of the New Mexico landscape in her writing. Reading this book is a lot like visiting New Mexico. At first, a visitor only sees the desert's desolation and monotony. Slowly, the beauty of the area starts appearing in little details. Finally, the visitor realizes that, while it isn't overly dramatic, there is much beauty in New Mexico. The same pattern of recognition can be applied to the book. At first, the book appears to be just about Latour's work. Yet, the frequent evocative descriptions of the New Mexico landscape plant seeds in the reader's mind. By the end, one has a clear understanding of the high desert's life-changing power. It is no surprise that this work is considered a classic. Cather's love for the New Mexico terrain clearly shows on every page. What is most impressive is that she was able to take that love and articulate it into a story which shows the way in which that terrain can change a person. Death Comes for the Archbishop not only stands as a model of good storytelling, but also as one of the premier works explaining the appeal that the natural grandeur of the American Southwest has on people's imaginations and hearts.
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Summary: O My Cather
Review: This is a novel for the discerning. The deceptively simple story line is sparingly told with an unerring authorial instinct for the essential idea or experience. That Willa Cather, a Protestant woman raised on the Nebraska prairie, could so movingly render the interior lives and experiences of two relatively cosmopolitan European Italian priests bringing the long reach of the Church of the Vatican to Hispanic and Indian peoples in the remote Southwestern frontier of 19th Century New Mexico, is a testimony to the power of the human imagination and to Cather's finely honed skills as a writer. One may lament the passing of a popular aesthetic that can comprehend, much less appreciate, either the thread of the story or the magnitude of her achievement. This finely drawn novel captured my imagination in a way few books ever have. If you are prepared for a work with the subtly emotive power to draw you into another place, time and life, I commend it to you. If not, please pass on by (and spare us any deprecating reviews).
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Summary: A Litmus Test--Agreed!
Review: After reading with fascination the prior forty-plus reviews, they would appear to fall into three categories: juveniles who were forced to read the book for school, giving the book the lowest possible ratings. PC-types who judge both the writing of the book and the actions and beliefs of the characters by today's standards--such smug intolerance! Thirdly, those who love literature for its own sake, belonging to the community that has made this one of the classics in American writing. I admit, I am part of the third group. I fell in love with the writing of Cather as a teenager. To date, I have found no other author who can illustrate the great expanse of America and the vision of our ancestors in the way she could. Being set in New Mexico, the feeling of expanse of the American West permeates every page. I agree with another reviewer that this book is the writing equivalent of O'Keefe. While I can understand the young ones criticizing the book after being forced to read it, I don't understand adults who were dissatisfied. Was this their first Cather? Hopefully not (I'd recommend starting with "Song of the Lark" or "O Pioneers". Her writing is not an unknown quantity. I've read the book many times over the past thirty years, and it's not a book for those who like to have their plots laid out for them. The plot is obscure, as Cather leaves the main story line with chapters diverging like side trails off a main path. Though not hard to read, it's not a book for those in a hurry. It's best being read in a comfy chair on a rainy afternoon next to a window. The sense of timeliness, of the stretching on into eternity, is seldom better conveyed than in this book. A hundred-plus years on, Willa Cather's writing remains the foremost example of American Midwestern writing. For those who love the narrative style, I'd recommend finding some of the writings of Sarah Orne Jewett, one of Cather's mentors. You will see the origin of some of Cather's style.
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Summary: Criticism came to the Archbishop
Review: I attempted to read this book over the summer, but misplaced the copy not until this fall was I able to finish it. My overall opinion over the novel is a criticism on religion. If you are looking for action skip this one. What interested me is the impression I had of arrogance and ignorance of the religious Bishops to the well beings of others and especially the culture of the Indians and their beliefs. Seemingly they pay no emotional attention to others beyond themselves. What efforts/miracles/gifts they encounter they simply assume this is to be expected. I found it replusive to read about these Characters. On a mission for God, but so much missing the point of morality and respect for one another. I felt like it was a lesson for us all to try and be more respectful of not only others but what they have to say and believe in. The novel is not gripping like a Clancy, but it does have an elusive thought process and meaning underneath the surface.
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Summary: Awesome Insight!
Review: This book was given for me to read as an English assignment. When I began reading it I had no problem with getting into it. It was just a real good book. Period! I really loved Bishop (or should I say Archbishop) Latour, he has an immensely great character.
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Summary: Not reccomended at all
Review: This book qualifies as one of the most boreing books i have ever read. It was a group of side stories that didn't tie in together in the end. I had to force myself to finish it so i had some idea of the plot for the test i had to take.
Bottom line-Waste of time.
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