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A review by richardwells
Pale Horse, Pale Rider: Three Short Novels by Katherine Anne Porter
5.0
Time is treating the three short novels in this collection with kindness, and well it should. Each is masterfully written, taking us places we wouldn't normally go, with characters who speak through the years in a language common to this mortal coil.
Yes, the prose is more formal than we're used to - especially in this age of the abbreviated and hyphenated colloquial - but it can be appreciated, and enjoyed with very little effort. The words flow beautifully.
In this time of Covid, the title novel, Pale Horse, Pale Rider is short cinema that for about 3/4ths of the novel takes place in the fevered hallucinations of a young woman struck down with the Spanish Flu. Katherine Anne Porter doesn't have to make much of the social conditions of the time, because she has a fine eye for those telling details that condense a time of national stress into a few sentences. It seemed awfully familiar, and I thought I could have been reading about the year 2020.
I recommend the three short novels: Old Mortality, the first about growing up privileged and lied to, Noon Wine, the second about life and a tragedy on a small dairy farm, and the third, Pale Horse, Pale Rider, about the time of flu. Miranda is the name of the protagonist in both the first and third novels. Same person? Why not?
Yes, the prose is more formal than we're used to - especially in this age of the abbreviated and hyphenated colloquial - but it can be appreciated, and enjoyed with very little effort. The words flow beautifully.
In this time of Covid, the title novel, Pale Horse, Pale Rider is short cinema that for about 3/4ths of the novel takes place in the fevered hallucinations of a young woman struck down with the Spanish Flu. Katherine Anne Porter doesn't have to make much of the social conditions of the time, because she has a fine eye for those telling details that condense a time of national stress into a few sentences. It seemed awfully familiar, and I thought I could have been reading about the year 2020.
I recommend the three short novels: Old Mortality, the first about growing up privileged and lied to, Noon Wine, the second about life and a tragedy on a small dairy farm, and the third, Pale Horse, Pale Rider, about the time of flu. Miranda is the name of the protagonist in both the first and third novels. Same person? Why not?