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89 of 94 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
To be young, Calvinist, and ugly., November 11, 2004
This review is from: True Grit (Paperback)
I love this novel, having stumbled across it in a used bookstore some 20 years ago, having read it expecting not much more than stilted prose and shootouts, and having returned to it again and again since that first reading.
It's written in the first person, kind of like a memoir, by an old woman describing a youthful adventure. And what an adventure! Shootouts are the least of it.
Mattie Ross, the adolescent girl, is stingy, opinionated, unsentimental, and as tough as John Wayne, if not as big and strong. She conforms to Northrop Frye's concept of the "ironic" hero -- too naive to understand the things she's dealing with, like Voltaire's "Candide." When her ability to keep up during the pursuit of some outlaws is questioned, she answers defiantly, "Pappa took me on a coon hunt once." Camping overnight with the two lawmen, she registers a succinct complaint, "One of the officers made a wet snoring sound. It was disgusting."
But the prose is delirious throughout, like the events they describe. There's a laugh on almost every page, far too many to give examples. I should mention too that the prose is historically and regionally accurate. About a bucket of milk, Matty says, "It looks like bluejohn to me." I looked up "bluejohn" in the Dictionary of American Regional English, and there it was, an old term used in and around Arkansas for skim milk. Likewise, kerosene becomes coal oil. Tall scrubby weeds are a "brake." And all of these regionalisms are woven into a prose style that is memorably idiosyncratic and unintentionally funny as all get out! Rooster Cogburn intends to shoot an unsuspecting man in the back because, "It will give them to know our intentions is serious." Now that's a sentence to savor. First of all, there is the absurdity of the plan. Cogburn, instead of calling out and telling him that he's serious, is going to kill him just to be sure he and his friends know it. Second, there is the absence of contractions, as if the narrator is determined not to lapse into a casual style. And there is the attempt at elegance of expression -- "give them to know," and "our intentions [not just "we"]" are not to be taken lightly. And then there is the telling mixture of a plural noun ("intentions") with a single verb ("is"). The effect is disjointed. It's like hearing a rapper throw in an allusion to Thomas Aquinas.
I haven't read any other works by Charles Portis. I haven't gone out of my way to avoid them but I haven't sought them out either because I can't believe they could possibly match the humor, irony, character, and suspense of True Grit.
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47 of 50 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Truly great, November 30, 2010
I'm not sure what more I can say than, "Wow!" I don't know if I've ever been more surprised by a book. I ran across it a few times in the library and thought about checking it out, but then I kept remembering that John Wayne won his only Oscar in the movie version (which I haven't seen), and I don't really care for John Wayne, so that must have subconsciously led me to keep leaving it on the shelf. But, I finally picked it up, took it home, dipped into it -- and was instantly hooked. This is a gripping book about the single-minded pursuit justice in the 1870s, written in the amazing voice of a deadpan, plain-speaking prose of a woman looking back at the events some 30-40 years later.
Mattie Ross's beloved rancher father was murdered by a drunk hired hand while they were away on business, and Mattie's ineffectual mother sends her to town to collect the body. She does so, but also seeks out a U.S. Marshall whom she can tempt into heading into the Indian Territory of modern-day Oklahoma to track down and kill or capture the murderer. The crusty lawman she eventually hires has his flaws, including a taste for the drink and sordid service in the Civil War with Quantrill's Raiders (or one of the other loose raiding companies). But he also has a code he follows which makes him the right match for Mattie, who sees life in black and white absolutes. They are joined by a Texas lawman pursing the man for another crime (and substantial bounty) and the trio head off to find their man. Adventures and surprises ensue, including plenty of shooting and killing -- all recounted in the sparse and often unintentionally funny voice of the elder Mattie. Her voice is singular and riveting, making Mattie instantly into one of my favorite characters in American literature. The book is a true masterpiece- I'm buying 10 copies and giving them out as Christmas presents.
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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Gutsy western classic, February 26, 2005
This review is from: True Grit (Paperback)
Mattie Ross must be one of the all-time greatest fictional heroines as she embarks, in her own words, "to avenge her father's blood".
I love the humor of Portis's book,
COWBOY: I gave some thought to stealing a kiss from you, but now I am of a mind to give you five or six good licks with my belt.
MATTIE: One would be as bad as the other.
And again,
MATTIE: Do you need a good lawyer?
COWBOY: I need a good judge.
This is a heady mix. The technique of a first-person narrator adds realism and immediacy, which combines with the author's sense of drama and irony to create something quite remarkable. It is only strange that "True Grit" should have found more fame on the screen than on the page.
One thing annoyed me and that is hardly the fault of the writer. The cover blurb states,
"Mattie Ross should soon join the pantheon of America's legendary figures such as Kit Carson, Wyatt Earpp and Jesse James" (Washington Post)
Well, perhaps, if only she could jump that thin barrier which separates fact from fiction.
"True Grit" is such a compelling novel that I was genuinely surprised to find that Charles Portis is a living author. I had supposed it had been written closer to the time in which it is set, such is its sense of authenticity.
It is also unbearably sad as well as funny. As the older Mattie states, ruefully reminiscing on her young self, "time just gets away from us." Such wryness is more shocking than all the snake-pits, shoot-outs and dying ponies of the early part of the story.
I have a few quibbles. The two marshals, Rooster Cogburn and LaBoeuff live to great ages (we are told Cogburn lives to 68) when I guess in reality most would have been lucky to reach 40, even if they were not vastly overweight and whisky-quaffing like the hero. But overall I really enjoyed this short novel and its introduction by Donna Tartt, even if she does not fully acknowledge the importance of Portis to her own work.
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