Death Comes for the Archbishop

bgainor reviewed Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather (Vintage Books)

Mixed bag

3 stars

This book has a lot of lovely descriptions of the landscape of New Mexico, some very interesting characterizations, and a lot of nice turns of phrase. But as @gwenprime@bookwyrm.social noted, it's very much a book of its time. In particular, the fact that Kit Carson is featured as a (mostly) sympathetic character feels very inappropriate from a modern perspective. I believe that in the 1920s, its sympathetic portrayal of Native Americans and the Long Walk of the Navajo was pretty progressive, but a lot of it now seems rather paternalistic. Worth reading as long as you can keep all that in mind.

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.

DaveNash3 reviewed Death comes for the archbishop by Willa Cather (Vintage classics)

Review of 'Death comes for the archbishop' on 'Storygraph'

4 stars

Amazing descriptions of the New Mexico landscape. Cather weaves in the story of a life the archbishop in Santa Fe from the 1850s to 1880s. The first 50 pages and last 50 pages were gripping. The Archbishop first has to make it and then later confronts death and the loss of his closest friend.