Gringos

Gringos was the first Portis novel I read; though nowhere does it approach, say, the perfection of the first few pages of Norwood, it remains, in some ways, my favorite of Portis's five novels. In Gringos, as in all his novels, Portis communicates to us the narrator's extraodinary compassion for a cast of misfits and losers. In the end, then, Gringos doesn't show showcase its author's justly-praised comedic gifts. It's also deeply moving.

The one constant in a Charles Portis novel is the tone: dry, deadpan, but never condescending. Often the tone serves as a buffer between the characters and the harsh, arbitrarily violent world around them. In Portis's first novel, _Norwood_, the strategy is largely successful, though in Portis's second and most famous novel, _True Grit_, violence assumes a fundamental place in the narrative.Portis's latest novel, _Gringos_, about a group of American expatriates in Mexico, may be his most disturbing yet. Although it begins slowly, introducing us to a seemingly random menagerie of locals, dropouts, and hippies, the novel builds to a brutal, unforgettable climax in the remote Mexican jungle._Gringos_ is alternately funny and brutal, yet leaves an unexpectedly sweet aftertaste. It's a rollicking, adventurous masterpiece from one of America's finest living novelists.