I visit New Mexico often (as I have family there), and this book recently came across my radar as it is set there. Willa Cather did an amazing job in her descriptions of the area and its peoples. This novel, which is semi-historical fiction, takes place over several years in the 19th century while this was still New Mexico territory -- there are incidents in Colorado as well. I was amazed at how Cather's descriptions of these places still seem relevant today. The main characters are a pair of Catholic priests (one later becomes the titular archbishop of Santa Fe), and are depicted as kind but firm -- perhaps an exception to what was really the overall case of those who were active in colonizing the area. Cather has Kit Carson appear here and there -- and to her credit, she does say he was misguided in some of his activities.

Overall, a wonderfully written novel which is more vignette-like than plot-driven. Additionally, very descriptive of its settings. ( )

Death Comes for the Archbishop, published in 1927, is considered by many to be Willa Cather’s masterpiece. The novel opens in 1851 with a French priest, Jean Marie Latour, traveling from his former posting in Ohio to become the Apostolic Vicar to New Mexico. Joining him is another priest, Joseph Vaillant, a close friend since their days in seminary together. The Territory of New Mexico had just come under American control the year before, and its primary citizens are Mexicans and Indians. While the majority of them are Catholic, their culture and beliefs are unfamiliar to both men.

Just as important to the story is the Southwestern desert these priests find themselves living in. Cather’s descriptive prose elegantly captures its rugged beauty and dangers. Episodic in nature and non-linear, the book chapters highlight the lives of both men, covering a forty year time period. Both of them are shown having to endure numerous hardships over the years as, intent on spreading the Catholic faith, they travel by mule or horseback to remote communities throughout their sprawling territory and beyond.

The book is loosely based on the life stories of two French clergymen, Jean-Baptiste Larny and Joseph Machete. Kit Carson also makes a brief appearance. While Willa Cather was not a Catholic, the novel has strong religious overtones. Throughout, she treats the priests’ mission as unquestionably a force for good. The story barely addresses the Catholic Church’s abuses against the native population, which were common throughout its history in the New World. When this is touched upon, it is treated as an aberration.

Cather’s ability to lushly evoke a place and time in America’s past keeps this book, a century on, as a must-read for fans of the author. ( )

Not much fast-paced drama here, but Cather's rich language pulled me in to another time and another world. Sometimes I like to take a break from intense drama, and to be carried along in the arms of a master writer. This book was a real pleasure that deserves the 5 stars. ( )

Nowhere as dramatic as the title of the book had made it seem like! Two French catholic missionaries embark on a journey to the land of canyons, hills and desert and what an adventure their lives become!

Surprising fact number one: Willa Cather herself was never catholic but protestant, even though she admired the Catholics.

Surprising fact number two: The book is actually based on the life of a true missionary (Rt. Rev. Joseph P. Machebeuf).

Surprising fact number three: Willa Cather was not a native of Arizona or Colorado even though she describes the landscape and scenery as one who lived her entire life there

She narrates of a land where Indians, Mexicans and white men live without a condescending tone with regards to race and civilization. With such magnificent taste, she describes the land the people inhabit and of their customs. It's interesting how she tells of the interdenominational conflicts between the Catholics and Protestants, the tensions and conflicts between Indians and the white "developers" and her descriptions of the landscape and the skies. ( )

There are some exceptionally beautiful passages in this novel but ultimately I felt pretty neutral about the story as a whole. And story is generous--more like a lot of short stories and vignettes that follow two priests through their time in the southwest. I wanted a little more substance and intimacy, but mainly got broad strokes and beautiful landscapes. I think I prefer O, Pioneers.

But alas, my 3 star rating changed to 4 stars based on this incredible passage alone:

"It was the Indian manner to vanish into the landscape, not to stand out against it. The Hopi villages that were set upon rock mesas were made to look like the rock on which they sat, were imperceptible at a distance. ...

In the working of silver or drilling of turquoise the Indians had exhaustless patience; upon their blankets and belts and ceremonial robes they lavished their skill and pains. But their conception of decoration did not extend to the landscape. They seemed to have none of the European's desire to "master" nature, to arrange and re-create. They spent their ingenuity in the other direction; in accommodating themselves to the scene in which they found themselves. This was not so much from indolence, the Bishop thought, as from an inherited caution and respect. It was as if the great country were asleep, and they wished to carry on their lives without awakening it; or as if the spirits of earth and air and water were things not to antagonize and arouse. When they hunted, it was with the same discretion; an Indian hunt was never a slaughter. They ravaged neither the rivers nor the forest, and if they irrigated, they took as little water as would serve their needs. The land and all that it bore they treated with consideration; not attempting to improve it, they never desecrated it." ( )