Белый конь, бледный всадник

'Chto zhe takoe zhiznʹ, i chto mne s neĭ delatʹ?'Ėta vzvolnovannai͡a fraza geroini odnoĭ iz novell sbornika 'Belyĭ konʹ, blednyĭ vsadnik', gde kazhdai͡a novella po napri͡azhennosti proiskhodi͡ashchikh sobytiĭ stoit bolʹshogo romana, mozhet posluzhitʹ ėpigrafom ko vsemu tvorchestvu Kėtrin Porter. Gde by ni proiskhodilo deĭstvie ėtikh istoriĭ - na malenʹkoĭ molochnoĭ ferme sredi ravnin Tekhasa, ili v bolʹshom gorode, chto by ni lezhalo v osnove si͡uzheta - sluchaĭnoe prestuplenie ili smutnai͡a, grozovai͡a atmosfera Pervoĭ mirovoĭ voĭny, glavnym dli͡a pisatelʹnit͡sy vsegda ostai͡utsi͡a perezhivanii͡a chelovecheskogo serdt͡sa.

'What is life, and what should I do with it?'This excited phrase of the heroine of one of the short stories in the collection "White Horse, Pale Rider", where each short story is worth a big novel in terms of the intensity of the events taking place, can serve as an epigraph to the entire work of Catherine Porter. Wherever the action of these stories takes place – on a small dairy farm among the plains of Texas, or in a big city, whatever lies at the heart of the plot - an accidental crime or the vague, stormy atmosphere of the First World War, the main thing for the writer is always the experiences of the human heart.