A review by caroparr
Pale Horse, Pale Rider by Katherine Anne Porter

4.0

Three short novels (as she called them) that explore various states of mind. "Old Mortality" is the story of a charismatic young woman whose early death prompts her nieces to imagine what she was really like; "Noon Wine" is an astonishing story about a struggling farmer who takes in a silent Swede who turns the farm around before tragedy strikes; and the final story is why I picked up this book in the first place. Miranda is a very modern newspaper reporter in 1918 who meets up with a soldier who's headed for the front. The spectre of death hovers over both of them, Adam because the odds are that he will be killed in battle, Miranda because she comes down with influenza just as the Spanish flu pandemic is taking hold. The descriptions of her hallucinations, confused thinking, dreams and occasional returns to reality are gripping. Unforgettable.