Death Comes For the Archbishop I

I have just finished Willa Cather's Death Comes For the Archbishop. It is a shame I took thirty years to read it. Cather, who died the year after I was born, creates a Santa Fe I recognize and, in Bishop Latour, a character worthy of Bishop Lamy.

Cather draws an insightful contrast between Fr. Vaillant and his companion and bishop, Jean Latour. Early in the book, she puts a most memorable sentence in the down-to-earth Vaillant's mouth: "I noticed that scholars always manage to dig out something belittling." Willa Cather, Death Comes For the Archbishop (Thorndike, Me: Thorndike Press, 1984) p. 62.

Too true.