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Richard Derus's Reviews > Death Comes for the Archbishop
Death Comes for the Archbishop
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by
Rating: 5* of five
This book is a survivor. Closing in on 90 years after its initial appearance, it's still on must-read lists. For a good reason: It's a neither-fish-not-fowl book. As a history, it's a good novel; as a novel, it's fascinating history. Enough fiction was larded onto the flesh of New Mexico's post-annexation history to make this a tasty roast.
Like a roast, it's served in slices, as the stories of Latour/Lamy's progress in creating the Archdiocese of New Mexico are too numerous to tell each effectively. The storytelling mode makes the book feel less like an indigestible wodge of starchy glop, the unhappy fate of
THE SONG OF BERNADETTE. Religious subjects of novels are more often in the Bernadette mode, sadly, since there is little in dramatic storytelling more engrossing than the journey inward to spiritual revelation.
The events from the factual Archbishop Lamy's life that Cather chose to dramatize are among the best: The horrors committed in religion's name at Acoma stand out for me. There was an oppressive theocracy in place at Acoma, run for the sole benefit of a greedy priest whose cruelty was shielded by his isolation in the vastness of the Sonoran desert. The ending of that tale is very satisfying.
If you haven't ever read this book, please do, it's a beaut.
This book is a survivor. Closing in on 90 years after its initial appearance, it's still on must-read lists. For a good reason: It's a neither-fish-not-fowl book. As a history, it's a good novel; as a novel, it's fascinating history. Enough fiction was larded onto the flesh of New Mexico's post-annexation history to make this a tasty roast.
Like a roast, it's served in slices, as the stories of Latour/Lamy's progress in creating the Archdiocese of New Mexico are too numerous to tell each effectively. The storytelling mode makes the book feel less like an indigestible wodge of starchy glop, the unhappy fate of
THE SONG OF BERNADETTE. Religious subjects of novels are more often in the Bernadette mode, sadly, since there is little in dramatic storytelling more engrossing than the journey inward to spiritual revelation.The events from the factual Archbishop Lamy's life that Cather chose to dramatize are among the best: The horrors committed in religion's name at Acoma stand out for me. There was an oppressive theocracy in place at Acoma, run for the sole benefit of a greedy priest whose cruelty was shielded by his isolation in the vastness of the Sonoran desert. The ending of that tale is very satisfying.
If you haven't ever read this book, please do, it's a beaut.
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Quotes Richard Liked
“Beautiful surroundings, the society of learned men, the charm of noble women, the graces of art, could not make up for the loss of those light-hearted mornings of the desert, for that wind that made one a boy again. He had noticed that this peculiar quality in the air of new countries vanished after they were tamed by man and made to bear harvests. Parts of Texas and Kansas that he had first known as open range had since been made into rich farming districts, and the air had quite lost that lightness, that dry, aromatic odour. The moisture of plowed land, the heaviness of labour and growth and grain-bearing, utterly destroyed it; one could breathe that only on the bright edges of the world, on the great grass plains or the sage-brush desert.”
― Death Comes for the Archbishop
― Death Comes for the Archbishop
Reading Progress
Started Reading
November 7, 2016
–
Finished Reading
November 8, 2016
– Shelved
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Henry
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rated it 4 stars
Jul 01, 2017 06:40PM
I agree, this is a wonderful book, Richard.
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I also agree. Cather is among my favorite authors and I have read this more than once, and likely will again.
Henry wrote: "I agree, this is a wonderful book, Richard."Ages very well, I think.
Sue wrote: "I also agree. Cather is among my favorite authors and I have read this more than once, and likely will again."It's a comfort read indeed.
