True Grit

by Charles Portis

Book Overview

#1 New York Times bestseller
"An epic and a legend" --Washington Post
"Quite simply, an American masterpiece." --Boston Globe
"The dialogue in True Grit is exquisite." --David Mamet
"Charles Portis had a wonderful talent--original, quirky, exciting." --Larry McMurtry

Charles Portis has long been acclaimed as one of America's most enduring and incomparable literary voices, and his novels have left an indelible mark on the American canon. True Grit, his most famous novel, was first published in 1968, and has garnered critical acclaim as well as enthusiastic praise from countless passionate fans for more than fifty years.

This story of danger and adventure in the old west became the basis for two award-winning films, the first starring John Wayne, in his only Oscar-winning role, as Marshall Rooster Cogburn, and the widely praised remake by the Coen brothers, starring Jeff Bridges.

True Grit tells the story of Mattie Ross, who is just fourteen when the coward Tom Chaney shoots her father in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and robs him of his life, his horse, and $150 cash. Filled with an unwavering urge to avenge her father's blood, Mattie finds and, after some tenacious finagling, enlists one-eyed Rooster Cogburn, the meanest available US Marshal, as her partner in pursuit, and they head off into Indian Territory after the killer.

True Grit is essential reading. Not just a classic Western, but an undeniable classic of American literature as eccentric, cool, funny, and unflinching as Mattie Ross herself. For fans of either the John Wayne classic or the more recent Coen brothers' movie, it's a chance to relive the story of Mattie and Rooster and experience their story as it was originally told. For fans of taut, funny storytelling, it will be a joy to experience in its original form.

This edition includes an afterword by bestselling author Donna Tartt (The Secret History and The Goldfinch) and a reading group guide.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 159020459X
• ISBN13: 9781590204597
• Release Date: November 2010
• Publisher: Overlook Press
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.51 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.3" x 7.9"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

So worth it

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

Without a question, one of the Great American Novels.

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.

A Great American Novel

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.

Better than the movie

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

Have this book surgically attached to your body!

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!

a (the?) great American novel

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.