Finally! I've finished another book! That took a while. Which is the most telling thing about Death Comes for the Archbishop. It isn't extraordinarily bad, such books I actually finish relatively quickly because... I guess I'm interested to know how bad it can get (Patricia Cornwall is the record keeper thus far). But I definitely do not consider this a good book. I was "Bored to Hell", quite frankly. Which is not a place an Archbishop should be sending me.
The first thing that struck me about this book was how hard it was to follow initially. It got a lot better, whether this was because I was acclimated to her 1927 writing style or whether it just takes that long to figure out who she's talking about. She references nearly everyone as "father", because they are fathers in the church. But I couldn't tell what father she was talking about. Especially in the initial prologue.
For the life of me, I do not understand how Willa wrote so much! Because, looking back, I'm not even sure what I read about. Two guys spent time in the desert being priests? And she got a few hundred pages out of that? I guess that's impressive, fits in with older writing styles, but I guess I'm more of a fan of the newer styles where more happens. I don't feel, despite how descriptive she is of her characters, that they are really all that deep. But perhaps this is because I couldn't pay much attention to anything because I was in hell being bored.
The book doesn't really address anything. There is a lot it could be "about"... but it doesn't actually approach any of it. Such as, the affect of the Spanish on the Indians, and the Indians on the Spanish, and the effects of the Americans on the southwest, and the effect of Catholicism... It's all there, but that's it. It's there. It is not really discussed. Which, I suppose is pretty realistic. ...But also pretty boring.
I apologize to classical enthusiasts, but I'm glad that it's over and I can go on to another book.
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