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Summary: Death in a new way
Review: This book reviews the good and bad aspects of the new and old aspects of society. This may seem redudant and in many respects this book is quite redundant. I would recommend that you read the book notes for this book and nothing else. Unless in fact you need something to put you to sleep.
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Summary: A wonderful sense of a place in time
Review: This beautifully paced novel creates the atmosphere of the New Mexican desert and old Santa Fe through the observation of two French missionaries. It evokes this setting in beautiful language and through a series of character sketches. Slowly paced and poetic. A wonderful read.
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Summary: Do yourself a favor; read this book!
Review: This novel is simply the most beautiful that I have ever read. It embodies a piece of wisdom that I ran into many years ago; true happiness is to conceive of an ideal in youth, and then live it out into old age and death.This story of a missionary Bishop's, (later Archbishop's) life; his loyalty and service to his church, his hardships, joys, and friendships, against the backdrop of the American southwest,which Cather draws exquisitely, is unbeatable.
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Summary: Stunning
Review: This book is beautiful. I found the character of the Bishop to be extremely sympathetic and Cather's portrayal of his odyssey in the Southwest to be painfully moving. I don't see how anyone could find this novel bland or boring. I wonder what kind of books those people enjoy. This book is a masterpiece, unlike Black Robe, which is serviceable but more like a soap opera.
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Summary: Quiet and still, if it weren't for the crashing crescendos
Review: In studying the history of the American West, I've come across a few real gems; Stegner's Beyond the Hundredth Meridian, The Journals of John Wesley Powell, Fremont's journals of his surveys, several books by Ed "Vulture Breath" Abbey, just to name a few. "Archbishop" is on the same shelf with these other classics in my bookcase. Cather takes a mundane day out of the lives of her characters and turns it into a Mahler-esque symphony of crashing, staggering "That air [of wilderness] would disappear from the whole earth in time, perhaps; but long after his day. He did not know just when it had become so necessary to him, but he had come back to die in exile for the sake of it. Something soft and wild and free, something that whispered to the ear on the pillow, lightened the heart, softly, softly picked the lock, slid the bolts and released the prisoned spirit of man into the wind,into the blue and gold, into the morning, into the morning!" Human integration with the natural, non-technologic world, and the feelings that integration fosters, is not often portrayed as well as this. The Archbishop lives! ;-)
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Summary: A Litmus test for philistines
Review: Gorgeous meditative writing. Subtle, mature, profound. Not for earth-bound, impatient geeks or silly high-schoolers.
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Summary: Finishes with a sense of triumph in the simple life
Review: As an English major, I've read plenty of classics, and I must say that this one is in the top 10 for me. Cather's language is deceptively simple, and she weaves it almost magically into something deeply profound and delightfully inspiring. I found her story of service and trust in God to be one of the most faith-building I've ever read. Highly recommended!!!
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Summary: The book was long boring, and without a solid plot
Review: I was forced to read this book for summer reading. If my grade had not depended on my reading this i would have burned it after 30 pages. The characters jump in and out of the story. It drags on and on- i almost cried with joy when i was finally done.There is not an interesting plot or syquence of events.
Rating:
Summary: Touching
Review: Let it be known that Willa Cather can not write a structurely sound sentence, but when you put her sentences into paragraphs then you have magic. This book is a very touching account of faith; and the question remains "does American society still have any?" I remember this book being one of the most colorful books I have ever read.
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Summary: If you like art and/or poetry, you will love this book.
Review: The love and compassion of Fathers Latour and Vaillant, their understanding of "native" religions", make this a truly engrossing study of the best in human lives. I am not Catholic but can see the beauty in that faith, as I am sure Cather did. But most of all, I think that Cather and the artist Georgia O'Keeff were surely kindred spirits, both of whom were enriched by the beauty of the colors of the Southwest. What a pity to have read this magnificent book for its plot and excitement and to miss the poetry!
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