Death Comes for the Archbishop - Willa Cather

The ride back to Santa Fe was something under four hundred miles. The weather alternated between blinding sand-storms and brilliant sunlight. The sky was as full of motion and change as the desert beneath it was monotonous and still, --and there was so much sky, more than at sea, more than anywhere else in the world. The plain was there, under one's feet, but what one saw when one looked about was that brilliant blue world of stinging air and moving cloud. Even the mountains were mere ant-hills under it. Elsewhere the sky is the roof of the world; but here the earth was the floor of the sky. The landscape one longed for when one was far away, the thing all about one, the world one actually lived in, was the sky, the sky!

I admit that my enjoyment of this book is enhanced by a love of Northern New Mexico. Willa Cather has included many of the great places in this area which continue to lend to the mystique of New Mexico. It lives up to its title as the land of enchantment. And what could be more enchanting that seeing New Mexico through the eyes of a French-born missionary in the 1800s. As hard as life was with thousand mile horseback rides through snow-covered canyons, Cather leaves one wanting to experience this world so different from the rest of America.

The book is very sympathetic to the local people--Mexicans, Indians, and the early white settlers. While the title might lead one to belief that the story will center around the church, the author portrays the wonderful spirit and community feeling amongst the local people. It is a simple world where goodness lives in the hearts of people with simple tastes. A great book to read on a trip to New Mexico or a trip anywhere.