Death Comes for the Archbishop

"my favorite book ever...how do you take your values and move into a harsh, unforgiving landscape? what do you learn about your relationship with God?"

"Published in 1927, "Death Comes For The Archbishop" feels like a much more recent novel. Writing in a beautiful, timeless style, Cather crafts a southwestern legend that reaches across time to touch our souls. The breadth and depth of emotion in this barely 200 page book stunned me. From humor and wonder to horror and endurance, Cather takes us on an emotional journey as much as a geographic one as our holy protagonists attempt to plant the seed of the Church in a rough but beautiful country.<br/><br/>Cather has much to say about religion, friendship, European/Indian/American relations, faith, the desert landscape, and the nature of good and evil. Her portait of the "dark priest" Padre Martinez and his "disturbing, mysterious, magnetic power" lingers in my mind now weeks after I finished reading the book. But ultimately, what sticks with me most is a sense of profound appreciation for the beauty and power of Cather's prose.<br/><br/>One of my friends from book club pointed out that this book shared many similarities to Hesse's "Narcissus and Goldmund" - two similiarly constituted priests, a friendship enduring over time and distance, a beautiful style, and the boldness to take on fundamental questions. I initially thought that "Archbishop" was the American "Narcissus," but when I looked up the publication date, it turns out that Hesse's work was published three years after Cather's!<br/><br/>Full review and highlights at: <a href="https://books.max-nova.com/death-archbishop/">https://books.max-nova.com/death-archbishop/</a>"

"7/10"

"This is probably my favorite book. It made me fangirl thru Santa Fe. Bishop Latour and Father Valliant are so vibrant in their love for the Lord, for His People snd His Church... I read it over and over and over. Cather makes the reader love the landscape as much as the characters. Whenever friends visit Santa Fe, I send them a copy to read before they go..."

"I enjoyed this book. I am normally annoyed by religious stories but this is a very human story about people with very little of the normal intolerance and bigotry that I think of about religion going into worlds to convert/do missionary work. It is the interactions with local people and culture and customs done in a sensitive, observant and respective way and gives this book warmth."