"The past is never where you think you left it."

#AmReading SHIP OF FOOLS by #KatherineAnnePorter

"'πΌπ‘β„Ž 𝑏𝑖𝑛 𝑑𝑖𝑒 π‘“π‘’π‘ π‘β„Žπ‘’ πΏπ‘œπ‘™π‘Ž,'" she hummed, imitating Marlene Dietrich's broadest lowest style ... "I loved her best when she was being comic in her wonderful bull-contralto. How much nicer she was when she wasn't being the romantic heroine in the movies."

#AmReading SHIP OF FOOLS by #KatherineAnnePorter

https://youtu.be/cgI5GBgfD1A

"The passengers, emerging from the mildewed dimness of the customs sheds, blinking their eyes against the blinding sunlight, all had the look of invalids crawling into hospital on their last legs."

The ordeal of transiting through Veracruz over, the ship sets sail on the high seas bound for Bremerhaven. Now for the ordeals on board.

#AmReading SHIP OF FOOLS by #KatherineAnnePorter

Equally unflattering, "the...antics of creatures inhabiting the windowsills and balconies" of Veracruz, in particular the deceitful parrots:

"A long gray cat huddled watchfully in the window of his own house, staring at his enemy the parrot, that interloper with the human voice who had deceived him again and again with an invitation to come and get food."

#AmReading SHIP OF FOOLS by #KatherineAnnePorter

I'm pitching a translation of a short story collection at the moment. No bites...yet. I don't get readers (or publishers) who avoid short fiction. IMO, it's not length that matters but the quality of prose. Any number of words can tell an engaging story. But novels, it seems, hog the limelight.

#AmReading PALE HORSE, PALE RIDER by #KatherineAnnePorter. The stories (Porter called some "short novels") are brilliant. Jumping on board her only novel SHIP OF FOOLS next.

#Books #ShortStories #Novels