True Grit

If you loved the movie, you will love the book. It was beautiful from cover to cover and I couldn't put it down.

This is one of the greatest books ever written. It is humorous, dramatic and beautiful. It is a book you will read again and again. In addition to the great characters it will make you laugh throughout similar to "The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer," but make no mistake, Mattie Ross the character is no Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn. In an audiobook version of this work an essay on it is read in which the author of the essay (Donna Tartt) says that she is more Captain Ahab's little sister, than Huckleberry Finn's. A story of determination, stubbornness, courage; in short, True Grit.

It is curious that the rather self-conscious quest for "The Great American Novel" usually ignores the one exclusively American genre, the Western. The snobbishness or inferiority complex - or both, for they are usually related - of the New York-centred "American Literary Establishment" in this regard has always been counter-productive: after all, it was James Fenimore Cooper who first put the American novel on the world map, and Mark Twain remains the first name which occurs to most foreigners when American novelists are mentioned today, but both were considered rustic and vulgar in their day for looking westwards for their subject matter. The self-appointed arbiters of taste often overlook this beautiful little novel for much the same reason - and because it was made into a successful film. In fact it is a great tribute to the quality of the storytelling that so much of the novel - especially the pitch perfect dialogue - went straight into the film: this is rare for an adaptation. Having said that, fans of the film should be warned that there are some changes, and those who would prefer to keep undisturbed their memory of John Wayne leaping over the fence at the end might wish to steer clear of the book. Those who take it on its own terms will love it.

Portis combines an action oriented Western with a fish-out-of-water tale, sprinkles in humor, and then pretends it's all the reminisces of an old woman. A comedy disguised as a Western and a novel disguised as a memoir. Quite a feat. And Portis makes it work. If this reminds you of Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, there's good reason. Different sense of humor, but funny nonetheless. True Grit is told in the first person by Mattie (the young girl in the movie version) after she has become an old woman. The book is well-written and fun as hell. If you've only seen the movie, then grab this book for a lazy day camping or at the beach, but don't be surprised if your friends keep asking you what you're laughing about. The Shopkeeper The Shut Mouth Society

I have read True Grit about 16 times. Every time I go into The Strand or any book store I find a copy and prop it up on the fiction table hoping to infect someone else with the Portis bug. I have read all of his work, even "Gringos," and it is all as funny and real as "True Grit," especially "Norwood." I lobby high school teachers to get "True Grit" or "Norwood" on reading lists and I lend out copies left and right or give them away in the hopes of widening Portis' sphere of influence. But enough about me. "True Grit" is such a great read, full of jokes. I know I won't do them justice but here are a couple of scenes I like: The degenerate Marshall Rooster Cockburn lives in the back of a general store with a Chinese guy and a cat called Genera Price. He sleeps in a string bed (!) and shoots a rat during a business meeting with Mattie, the 14-year-old protagonist out after her father's killer. Or after Mattie tries to buy a horse from a local business man, vexing him beyond all limits, the business man sees her walking up the path and says "I heard tell of a young girl drowning in a well last night. But I can see you are fine." And the horse Blackie is such a good horse and the scene near the tail of the book where Blackie meets his end is so succinct and sad! This is a great book that I think just about everyone would enjoy from 10-year-olds to 75 year-olds Portis is supposedly holed up in a fishing shack in Arkansas writing a new book. I have a google search on his name to keep track of all Portis activity! I can't wait!

The near perfect action-adventure story that is at the heart of this book,thrillingly told with wit and style, overshadows this wonderful novel's more profound themes. This is a great American novel about big ideas-about courage and honor, love and family, time and fate. It is narrated by an elderly, childless woman telling the story of her life through the accumulation of details about her life's greatest adventure. The faultless pitch of these details are what make this book a work of art and one of the great novels of our time.