gwenprime reviewed Death Comes For The Archbishop by Willa Cather
Achingly gorgeous, but...
4 stars
This one is super tough for me. Death Comes is beautiful, you will feel connected to the place even if you've never stepped foot in the Southwestern US. The plot is there is no plot, it's slow, peaceful almost restful. You just watch the quiet decades roll by and somehow it's never boring. I happened to have the fortune of reading a 1927 edition from my library and that honestly might have added to the experience.
But I can't just gush. This story follows a Catholic Priest helping to push forward the imperial intentions of the United States. It makes no comment or critique ofthat, maybe it was just of it's time, maybe that's just not the point of the book, but it's still whitewash on a brutal part of history.
If you can read this and not forget how cruel the real history is, then yeah this one honestly …
This one is super tough for me. Death Comes is beautiful, you will feel connected to the place even if you've never stepped foot in the Southwestern US. The plot is there is no plot, it's slow, peaceful almost restful. You just watch the quiet decades roll by and somehow it's never boring. I happened to have the fortune of reading a 1927 edition from my library and that honestly might have added to the experience.
But I can't just gush. This story follows a Catholic Priest helping to push forward the imperial intentions of the United States. It makes no comment or critique ofthat, maybe it was just of it's time, maybe that's just not the point of the book, but it's still whitewash on a brutal part of history.
If you can read this and not forget how cruel the real history is, then yeah this one honestly might be worth it. But please don't put it on a high school reading list.
