Three Good Books

I discovered three good books this fall. One of them was recommended to me by a friend, one was an impulse buy, and one I checked out from the library so I could learn something about the history of Santa Fe. I thought they would be competently written and possibly instructive. They were. They were also works of art, I soon discovered, and I fell in love with each of them. I wrote reviews for these books in hopes of inspiring you to check them out of the library or buy them from a used book store (as I did, for $2.95 each). They are worth any effort it takes you to acquire them and any time it costs you to read them. In fact, they are bargains.

1.   Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

This short book--only about 150 pages--is about a young Indian Brahmin who becomes unfulfilled by his religion and leaves home to search for a deeper spirituality. Even though he is a young priest of great integrity and piety, and is admired by the whole country, he leaves everything behind to wander as an ascetic, driven by a spiritual hunger he doesn't understand. In his search for enlightenment, he wears many hats, tries many lifestyles, becomes a monk, meets the Buddha, becomes a lover, a rich man, a poor man, a father. He lives the full range of human experience, finding disappointment, pleasure, love, wealth, and loss. Finally, as an old man, he finds contentment. 

The writing is simple and beautiful, almost biblical in its economy and seriousness, poetic and profound. Every word and sentence does important work. It is a masterpiece.

I read this book in one afternoon sitting on top of a picnic table, and it didn't occur to me to be uncomfortable until the sun moved behind the house and I was in a cold shadow. Feeling annoyed, I got up, walked around the house, and sat down on the front steps in the warm Indian summer sun without taking my eyes off the page. When I looked up after finishing, the landscape had changed position somehow, the sky had rotated overhead, the trees and grass seemed to be shimmering with light and the wisdom of life. 

This book was a gift. 

2.   A Room With A View by E. M. Forster

In 1908, a young middle class British woman named Lucy goes on holiday to Italy with her maiden aunt and finds her unquestioning conventional life disturbed by the sensual beauty and passion of the Italian countryside and people. While in Florence, she befriends the Emersons, a "free-thinking" father and son from her own country, whose authenticity, kindness, indifference to social norms and personal philosophy intrigues and frightens her. After the son, George, scandalously kisses her on an outing to the country, a struggle begins in Lucy's soul between the cultural and societal norms that she has been raised with, and the previously subdued desire for adventure and passion that now seeks expression. Upon returning to England, Lucy tries to forget everything that happened in Italy and becomes engaged to a pompous bore. Italy, however, follows her home when the Emersons serendipitously move in down the street.

The hearts of men and women are open for observation throughout the book and the author is brilliant and compassionate in the analysis of each character and situation. E. M. Forster shows both the dangers of conformity and the price that must be paid for unconventionality and authenticity. But it is ultimately a beautiful story of a soul's awakening.

3.   Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather

This book is structured loosely around the life of Jean Latour, a French missionary priest who comes to 1840s Santa Fe to be its first bishop. The land, inhabited by Indian tribes, Mexican Catholics, despotic priests, and American traders, is still only accessible by foot or horseback and cut off from the rest of the world. Through the experiences of Father Latour's life, a picture of primitive America emerges, hospitable and cruel and difficult and beautiful, full of people made vivid by the stark background of sun and rock. Father Latour and his fellow priest, the missionary Father Vaillant, are especially wonderful characters, so well developed and believable that it seems like they must be walking around somewhere in my house now, wondering where I went. 

I have read many of Willa Cather's books and liked all of them, but this one I loved. She wrote this while living in New Mexico near Taos, north of Santa Fe. She was fascinated by the region's native people, the land, and the dramatic history of New Mexico, and from her fascination she created a beautiful piece of literature. She does in words what Georgia O'Keeffe did with paint and canvas--she lets you almost taste the place, the sand and the rocks, the blue sky, and the wild loneliness that is its danger and its beauty.

Despite its rather morbid title, the book has very little to do with the Archbishop's death. It is about faith and life flourishing in a desert--not in spite of the desert but because of it. Reading a chapter was like eating a chocolate--the book is too rich to be taken in all at once. It must be enjoyed over several days, maybe even a few weeks, to absorb everything it offers to your heart and imagination. It was absolutely beautiful, absolutely! If you only read one of these books, read this one.