This is Cather’s alleged masterpiece. I am a huge fan of the much less famous MY ANTONIA, so thought I would give it a try. I can’t decide how I feel about it. Despite it being only about 250 pages, I kept almost giving up. Weeks later though, I am finding it has strangely stuck with me.
It tells about the struggles of two French priests, sent to Mexico (or New Mexico? I am not sure) in the late 1800s to manage an immense Catholic diocese. After the Spanish left, Catholicism managed to survive there on its own for multiple generations, without any additional reinforcement, developing its own rituals and apocrypha. I find it fascinating to see how the basic ideas of a religion are powerful enough across continents and centuries to keep people engaged, even if they only have a very short introduction to it. The priests were tasked with bringing this wild growing version of Catholicism back in line.
The book is a series of very short but very beautiful vignettes, moving back and forth in time from when the priests are young men, and decide to leave France for Mexico, through long mule rides across mountains, to building cathedrals, to rescuing women from abusive relationships, and finally on to death. It’s packed with incident and yet really I can’t tell you what I think it is about. I didn’t enjoy it, but perhaps I agree it is her masterpiece.