Book Review -- True Grit




 True Grit by Charles Portis (Arkansas author)

  My rating: 5 of 5 stars

  Book source:  Library copy

  Sensitive reader:  mild descriptions of gun shot wounds, gun fighting and SNAKES!

  Challenge: Support Your Local Authors perpetual challenge

Mattie Ross, a 14 year old dynamo, is out to exact vengeance on one Tom Chaney, a former work hand for her family. Tom has killed her father, and whether she has help or not, she is determined to bring Tom back to Forth Smith and Judge “Hanging” Parker for justice.

Mattie is able to secure for $100 the assistance of a one-eyed Marshall, Rooster Cogburn. Thus they begin their quest into Indian Territory for the renegade Chaney.

Mattie Ross has become my new favorite adolescent heroine – she’s Scout Finch, but rides a horse and carries a revolver. She shoots, squirms, saves herself from snakes and survives to tell her tale.

The other characters are equally as colorful: Rooster is a former felon, turned law-man with a proclivity to drink. Even though I didn’t see the original movie, John Wayne’s image was superimposed on my brain throughout the novel and it was a PERFECT image. The two also meet up with LeBoeuf, a Texas Ranger who is also on the trail of the menacing Chaney. A somewhat bumbling figure, LeBoeuf adds enough variety to their trifecta to make it interesting.

The prose in this book is stark and sharp – and surprisingly funny! I read it in the car on our way to Tulsa, and through ALL the major towns mentioned in the story: Dardanelle, Fort Smith, Fort Gibson Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), and I laughed out loud at many of the passages. Mattie when describing her opinion of men said, “Men will live like Billy goats if they are let alone.” True Mattie, so very true.

I couldn’t help comparing this book to Lonesome Dove since I read them so closely to each other. Honestly, I could see where McMurtry could have been “influenced” by Charles Portis’ work. In fact, I was expecting Gus and Call to meet up with Rooster, Mattie and LeBoeuf at any of the many outposts where they stopped. But I was amazed at what Portis was able to accomplish in a sparse 200+ pages compared to what McMurtry was able to drag on for 900 pages.

In short, I loved this book.

And Mr. Portis lives a few blocks from my house – you think if I go camp out on his porch he would sign a book for me?!

I'm off to see the movie tonight (had to read the book BEFORE the movie). I hope it meets expectations!

Here is the movie trailer:

Book Review -- Lonesome Dove




 

Book:  Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

My rating:  4.5 out of 5 stars

Book source:  Personal copy

Summary from the publisher:  A love story and an epic of the frontier, Lonesome Dove is the grandest novel ever written about the last, defiant wilderness of America. Richly authentic, beautifully written, Lonesome Dove is a book to make readers laugh, weep, dream and remember.

It’s almost impossible to review a book I’ve spent 9 weeks analyzing, exploring, and dissecting every scene, character and locale.

So, I will keep it brief: I loved it! It took me nearly 300 pages (all of Part 1) to find my grove with this book. The Hat Creek gang spent more hours getting out of Texas than they did at any other location. I lost patience with all of them. Plus, the ongoing talk of “sporting” women (code name for whores) was burdensome and tiring. Without our ongoing read along – I would have easily given up on this book. But once Part II began with the introduction of an entirely new set of characters, the whole novel exploded with energy, humor, drama, and tragedy.

McMurtry’s characters were some of the most memorable I’ve read in a long time. I will go to my grave with a crush on Gus McCrae. In addition to his “human” characters – McMurtry is brilliant in making the horses (Hell Bitch, in particular), pigs and cattle as integral to the story as the cowboys and Indians.

The only reason I didn’t rate this book a 5 star was, not only did I find it arduous in the beginning, but I thought the ending was rushed. The cowboys took nearly 800 pages to make their cross-country trek, but when one of them had to return, it only took 100 pages. A little too expedited and neatly tied up for me.

But it was a grand, wonderful novel, full of amazing dialogue, distinctively written characters, and a scope beyond anything I’ve ever read before.

Up next: The miniseries!! I have it on hold at the library – can’t wait for it to arrive.

Check out the trailer – just the few scenes that are represented seem true to the novel.