Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Pale Horse, Pale Rider: Three Short Novels (Hbj Modern Classic) by Katherine Anne Porter ISBN: 0-15-170755-3 Publisher: Harcourt Pub. Date: 18 June, 1990 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.67 (9 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Three gems in a jewel box
Comment: Katherine Anne Porter writes like a lapidary; each sentence is like a polished jewel, every word is perfect. "Pale Horse, Pale Rider" is a compilation of three novellas: "Old Mortality", seen through the eyes of Maria and Miranda Rhea, two children home for the weekend from their stultifying boarding school, is the tale of the family black sheep, a beautiful young cousin of easy virtue who continues to fascinate and frustrate her extended family long after her early death; "Noon Wine" shows us a Texas family torn apart by the guilt of the father who murdered a man in what may or may not have been self-defense, and "Pale Horse, Pale Rider" brings Miranda back again as a young woman disillusioned too many times, whose relationship with her lover Adam is threatened not only by his impending entry in to combat in World War One, but even more immediately by the specter of the great flu epidemic of 1918 that is sweeping through the population, leaving more death in its wake than any war ever fought. Porter writes sparingly, but she packs a world of emotion and feeling into every paragraph. This relatively short book is one of the giants of American fiction.
Rating: 5
Summary: Great Stories
Comment: This collection consists of three short novels: 'Pale Rider, Pale Horse','Old Mortality', 'Noon Wine'.
The stories are disturbing and haunting, and Porter's talent shines through and will make you wonder why you haven't heard of her before.
Rating: 5
Summary: Short fiction the way it should be.
Comment: Katherine Anne Porter displays the human experience with turns of phrase that catch your breath. The awkward spinster cousin blooms "like a dry little plant set out in a gentle rain" when her critical mother leaves the room. A woman delirious with influenza falls into a sleep "that was not sleep but clear evening light in a small green wood..."
I thought Flannery O'Connor had ruined all other southern short fiction writers for me, but Porter meets O'Connor's deft character portraits, with their keen knowledge of mannerisms and their psychological depth, as well as O'Connor's ability to surprise the reader with moments of recognition: Miranda's girlhood experience feels like my girlhood experience, across generations and geography. Even Mr. Thompson's story feels like it could have happened in one's own family, like the story grandparents and great aunts and uncles half-tell and subtly refer to while the turkey roasts in the oven and everyone steals nuts off the pecan pie.
I agree with others who are astonished that this book is not part of the literary canon in the U.S. It is a stunning, gorgeous example of short fiction. With the impenetrable heaps of "literary fiction" from contemporary writers, marketed to ridiculous heights, I'm finding old gems like this one soothing to my constantly inundated reader's mind. Read it. And writers, take note.
 |
Title: Ship of Fools by Katherine Ann Porter ISBN: 0316713902 Publisher: Back Bay Books Pub. Date: 30 May, 1984 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
 |
Title: The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter by Katherine Anne Porter ISBN: 0156188767 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: September, 1979 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
 |
Title: America's Forgotten Pandemic : The Influenza of 1918 by Alfred W. Crosby ISBN: 0521541751 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 21 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
 |
Title: The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague In History by John M. Barry ISBN: 0670894737 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: 05 February, 2004 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
 |
Title: The Moviegoer by Walker Percy ISBN: 0375701966 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 14 April, 1998 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
