Katherine Anne Porter: A Life

Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Literary Biography
Review: When reading Porter's fiction, we cannot help but acknowledge that she was a consummate stylist. We marvel at her narrative voice as she fleshes out characters such as Miranda Gay, Maria Concepcion, or Granny Weatherall, and in recognizing this, one must congratulate Joan Givner for realizing that Porter, when it came to her own life, was also a stylist in her creation of a feminine literary persona, a persona so potent that only the most perservering of biographers can penetrate it. Givner has done just that in her work. Because of her tenacious research and attention to detail, she gives us a study that is often anecdotal but always honest, and no doubt that combination makes for a great biographical read. She gives us the real Porter, and at the same time never lets us forget that when Porter did find the time to write, she was one of the great literary talents of the twentieth century.