Time Magazine Top 100 Novels

Book 27: Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather (1927)

This is a series of reflections reading through Time Magazine’s top 100 novels as selected by Lev Grossman and Richard Lacayo published since 1923 (when Time magazine was founded). For me this is an attempt to broaden my exposure to authors I may not encounter otherwise, especially as a person who was not a liberal arts major in college. Time’s list is alphabetical, so I decided to read through in a random order, and I plan to write a short reflection on each novel.

This was a well written and very enjoyable historical fiction book set in late 1800s New Mexico and Arizona. Bishop Jean Marie Latour travels with his friend and fellow priest Joseph Valliant from Ohio to assume responsibility for the parish of New Mexico now that New Mexico and Arizona have been incorporated into the United States. The author does a great job describing the environment that the two men inhabit, and I appreciate her sympathetic handling of both the two main characters, the Mexican and the Native People who inhabit this world. The story includes several historical characters including Kit Carson and Pope Gregory XVI and both the main characters and their parishioners are well developed and interesting. As a pastor I found the devotion of both Bishop Latour and Father Valliant to their flock inspiring.

The descriptions of the land are breathtaking, and Willa Cather obviously has a great deal of affection for both the land and the characters in the story. As a person who enjoys the history of the American West and is a religious leader this was a story that appealed to me strongly. I quickly found myself journeying with the characters through New Mexico, Mexico, Arizona, and eventually Colorado. It was a story of life, faith, and relationships. This was a beautifully written work of historical fiction portraying the faithful life of two religious leaders encountering faith in the people they are called to shepherd is the type of novel I hoped to discover in this reading list.