Ms. Hen reviews Pale Horse, Pale Rider

 

Pale Horse, Pale Rider

Katherine Anne Porter

Houghton Mifflin

1939

Ms. Hen decided to read this book because she wanted to read some fiction about the Spanish flu epidemic. The title story is about the author's experience when she suffered from that illness. Ms. Hen bought the collection THE COLLECTED STORIES OF KATHERINE ANNE PORTER, but she decided only to write about this book within a book of three short novels, because she didn't want to write about the whole book.

The first short novel, "Old Mortality," is about a family and two young girls, Maria and Miranda, who grow up with stories about their cousin Amy who was beautiful, but died an early death. Their cousin Gabriel was in love with Amy, and they got married, though she was not happy. People have strong opinions about Amy, even after she was gone, including their cousin Eva who Miranda encounters on a train on the way home.

The story, "Noon Wine," is about a farm where a man goes to work as a farmhand. Mr. Thompson hires Mr. Helton, even though he does not like him at first. But Mr. Helton is an excellent worker, and he helps the farm prosper through his money saving techniques, and industriousness. He plays the harmonica, and he plays the same song all the time, "Noon Wine." Tragedy strikes, and the family suffers. This story reminds Ms. Hen a lot of stories by Flannery O'Connor in the way it's about a farm, and rural people, and also because it is dark.

"Pale Horse, Pale Rider," is about a woman who writes for a newspaper, and meets a man in the army who is about to go off to war. The influenza epidemic has struck and people are dying everywhere. The story gives an excellent description of what it's like to be sick from the patient's point of view. It's poetic and beautifully written. Ms. Hen thinks it might be the best description of illness she has read since she has been reading things about plagues and epidemics recently.

These stories, and the worlds they inhabit, remind Ms. Hen of the book she read, "One of Ours" by Willa Cather. Ms. Hen wanted to find out if these two authors knew each other, and they were contemporaries, but not necessarily friends. Porter wrote an essay about Cather called "Reflections on Willa Cather," which was well renowned. Porter considered herself on the outside of the modernist movement.

Since these stories are about rural life, of course there are lot of chickens. In "Noon Wine," some appear, "In spite of his situation in life, Mr. Thomspon had never been able to outgrow his deep conviction that running a dairy and chasing after chickens was women's work." Ms. Hen doesn't think women's work should be anything to scoff at, and running after chickens is as honorable work as any other.

Ms. Hen really liked these three short novels. They're different from each other, but show the world how it used to be in an honest way. Things were different then; there was less communication, and more prejudice. Ms. Hen is fascinated by this time period, as well as others throughout history. We are products of history, and we keep projecting forward, leaving more history behind.