We've got your back. With the Tough-O-Meter, you'll know whether to bring extra layers or Swiss army knives as you summit the literary mountain. (10 = Toughest)
Tree Line (5)
Willa Cather, being awesome, doesn't try to make things difficult for the reader. In fact, her prose is easy to digest and the plot is fast-paced: it's pretty close to your average Wild West adventure. Instead of cowboys, though, we have fathers and bishops.
And that's where things start getting a touch complicated. You may not know much about Catholicism when you start reading this book, but boy oh boy will you be schooled on Vatican politics by the time you finish. Things get complex when you're juggling what laws Rome is laying down and what Mexican bishops are countering with. Plus, get ready for oodles of references to religious iconography, ceremonies, and traditions. It could be a steep learning curve.
There's also no getting around the old-timey rhythm and vocabulary that Cather employs. She's not trying to be difficult, she's just trying to be accurate. But much in the same way that your parents might cup their ears and say "What's that, eh Sonny? What's that newfangled language you crazy kids are using today?" you might look at some of Cather's phrasing and think "The what now?"
But that's par for the course—this is a book from 1927 that takes place in 1850. It's doubly dated.