![]() ![]() The story ends with his death - not from illness, but "from having lived." Over many years, using his intellect, wisdom and humility, and helped by his great childhood friend, Father Vaillant, he struggles against loneliness, doubt, a hard land and human nature, to reform the local Catholic Church. The episodic story is deceptively simple: Priest Jean Marie Latour comes from France to be the first bishop in the then newly American territory of New Mexico. For me,ĭeath Comes for the Archbishop is such a book. So are books that thrill, that shine in memory, a permanent possession of the spirit. After demolishing many celebrated authors, he pronounces the final pages of Willa Cather's 1927 novelĭeath Comes for the Archbishop "some of the most exquisite ever written in American fiction." I wondered: How good was the book? So I bought it.Īs one ages, great friends are harder to find. In it, critic James Wood dissects bad writing and good writing both, as he sees them. ![]() One cold midwinter night, with heavy steps, I visited my local bookshop. ![]()
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