The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter
If you enjoyed this review, please consider purchasing this book (or Kindle) from my Amazon Associates link: https://amzn.to/3HQ2bQG. The commissions I receive from your purchase help pay for the costs of running this website. Thanks for your support!
At the risk of sounding like a wannabe MFA grad, there is something uniquely comfy-cozy about reading early-mid 20th century American literature. You feel like you should be cuddled up near a fire, in cozy socks and drinking hot tea, relishing in the quaintness but also recognizing yourself in the characters (if the writing is good). I like being transported to a different era where handwritten letters stood between lovers, railroad journeys separated families, and initiating courtship made you a spicy female. Still, I have White Fragility ringing in my ear reminding me that yearning for “the good ‘ol days” is a white person's luxury, and that is certainly true.
The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter contains 19 “short and long stories”. It won the 1966 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and National Book Award. Porter reminds me of some of her contemporaries-- Flannery O’Connor & John Steinbeck-- not because she’s second to them, but because I read them first. This was my first exposure to Porter, and I was not disappointed. She writes about love, marriage (the expert--she was divorced four times), and tragedy. One of her most haunting stories is Pale Horse, Pale Rider-- a story about a woman who falls ill during the Spanish Flu. If you want to read about a pandemic while you’re in one, this is a great choice.
Porter develops her characters steadily and carefully until something goes awry, like a slow boiling frog. Her dialogue is so realistic because her characters are so well established. I recommend this collection for anyone interested in this era. If you’re not, I’m not entirely convinced Porter is your best way in (I think I’m more team-Steinbeck). Overall, The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter receives 4 out or 5 flames.
