A very skilled short story writer, Katherine Anne Porter brings to life her characters and, primarily through character development, takes you deep into their world with a minimum of words. Not once did I feel that a story ended prematurely or that I wanted or expected more than I got.

She tackles a variety of experiences that might feel very familiar to most of us. In The Rope a husband and wife engage in an argument over a piece of rope that made me chuckle with recognition. I think if you are or have ever been married, you will see yourself and your spouse at some moment in this story. In fact, all you really need to have is a sibling or a friend and you might still relate easily to what transpires.

He is another excellent story that deals with a mother and her mentally handicapped son. I confess to feeling that we might, as a society, find ourselves in this one as well. It was a kind of tragic tale for me.

My favorite of the stories was The Cracked Looking Glass. This story of a May/December marriage struck me as particularly poignant. I could understand the feelings of the protagonist so well and loved seeing how her view changed over time.

Old Mortality, Noon Wine, and Pale Horse, Pale Rider are three novellas which were published originally under the collective name Pale Horse, Pale Rider. I was completely riveted to each of these stories, which are dark and disturbing in many ways. The first seems to pose the question of how much can we know about a person who is gone by listening to those who knew her? The second is a tale of the difference a hired man makes to the life of a farmer who employs him. The third, which ties back to the first by incorporating a character from that story, deals with fate and the precarious nature of life and death during WWI and the flu epidemic. All excellently written.

What was easy to realize, but surprising in its way, was the completely contemporary feel of all of these stories. We think our lives have changed substantially, but perhaps only the outer shell is different. The cell phones and newer fashions and quickie food preparation, and even the changes in the status of women in both the workplace and home, hasn’t changed the basic inner conflicts much at all.
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These are some of the finest short stories I have ever read. ( )

Wonderful! ( )

I was really looking forward forward to this collection of short stories--for quite a while. An award-winning collection. I enjoy short stories. I find them deserving of their own credit completely separate from the novel. I also enjoy learning a bit about the life of an author I am reading. I learned that this collection of short stories was the major achievement of Katherine Anne Porter's literary career and were actually the compilation of three previously published short story collections. Knowing this about the collection made me even more excited about getting to these stories.

Unfortunately, I was not all that thrilled with what I read. I found that the quality of the stories, at least in my eyes, varied considerably. It didn't help that I didn't care for the first couple of stories. Beyond that I enjoyed some of the stories and others I did not. I did enjoy the first two stories in Pale Horse, Pale Ride which made it all the more disappointing when I didn't enjoy the third story in that collection. Ultimately, reading this collection was too often work. I felt I was having to push myself to get through it, and it was taking too long to complete. I almost felt that somehow it must be my fault, but you either like something or you don't, and I didn't. ( )

Nothing too out of the ordinary. ( )