'True Grit' by Charles Portis
'No, I will see the thing done myself.'—Review #221
Like a vampire in daylight, I am repelled by movie tie-in editions of books. I don’t like the way they look and how they imply you’re reading the book only because there’s a trendy film. Last month, I almost dropped a copy of ‘The Haunting of Hill House’ by Shirley Jackson that had a teeny Netflix promo on its cover. Months ago, I held two used copies of ‘The World According to Garp’ by John Irving, one in each hand—one had a badly torn cover and the other had a nice sketch of the late Robin Williams from the 1982 film. The ripped cover has since been mended with black tape and is on my nightstand. Therefore, I can assure you I did NOT notice this copy of Charles Portis’s wonderful novel ‘True Grit’ was connected to the 2010 film when I bought it on a recent weekend getaway. Back at the hotel, I was stunned. It’s a nasty bit of book-design trickery, if you ask me. And it’s not the only thing this book is hiding.
Here’s the cover:
‘True Grit’ was my ‘Lapvona’ palate cleanser—a revenge tale was just what I needed—and I finished it in less than 24 hours. I was holding it in reserve to review after ‘A Grain of Wheat’ by Ngūgī Wa Thiong’o, which I had promised to feature today but am struggling to get through. I’ll return to it:
Set in the Old West along the Arkansas-Oklahoma border, ‘True Grit’ follows Mattie Ross, a 14-year-old girl out for justice after her father is murdered. Mattie is headstrong, precocious and capable. While her mother stays on the farm to watch her younger siblings, Mattie takes the train journey into Fort Smith, a frontier town in western Arkansas, to settle her father’s affairs. She claims his body from the undertaker and arranges for it to be sent home. She drives a shrewd bargain with a horse trader who previously had a business deal with her father. And she engages with local law enforcement about their efforts (or lack thereof) to chase down the killer, a ne’er-do-well named Tom Chaney. Frustrated by their inaction, Mattie, who narrates the story looking back on it decades later, takes matters into her own hands, enlisting the help of a one-eyed federal marshal named Rooster Cogburn. Rooster has a checkered past and a penchant for liquor, but has, as Mattie puts it, ‘true grit,’ meaning he has experience handling murderous criminals and knows his way around a gunfight. He also knows his way around Oklahoma’s Indian Territory where Chaney is rumored to have fled to join other outlaws. After a Texas Ranger named LaBoeuf (pronounced LaBeef), who is also after Chaney, links up with the pair, Mattie’s like:
The trio contends with desperados, wintery elements, poisonous snakes and their own bickering on their quest for Chaney. There are fun moments, too. One of my favorites is when Rooster is drunkenly trying to show LaBoeuf and Mattie how good a shot he is by flinging up corn biscuits to shoot out of the air. As more food and ammunition is wasted, Mattie is like:
But Mattie and Rooster eventually grow close. He sees that while she may be young, she has an earnest spirit and strong sense of justice. And she sees that while he might be broken down and a drunkard, there’s still a good man in there. They develop a trust and give each other hope, and through that there’s growth. Mattie develops her own true grit. Rooster finds renewed purpose and, perhaps, redemption. They reminded me a bit of these two:
Mattie’s voice as she narrates this fast-moving and straightforward adventure is truly remarkable. Portis sprinkles her retelling with interesting and odd colloquialisms (you’ll see some below), and I found myself not only wanting to know what was going to happen next, but also how she would describe it. His prose is direct and sparse—not a word is extraneous—nevertheless, he recreates vividly Mattie’s world and times, warts and all. I liked the glimpse he provides of a fleeting moment in history, when within one woman’s lifetime the outlaws and lawmen of the Wild West became the tame, tired and half-forgotten men of traveling Old West circus shows. I also liked the surprise at the end of the book, which I alluded to earlier: the secret afterword by Donna Tartt. It’s not mentioned on the cover, and when I stumbled upon it, I was like:
I loved ‘The Secret History’—I know many of you do, too—and I plan to read ‘The Little Friend’ early in 2024, so I was glad to get a morsel from Tartt about how ‘True Grit’ is beloved by several generations of her family. I think you’ll love it, too. It’s a thrilling, action-packed and beautifully written masterpiece, and I highly recommend it. Now, I’m off to rewatch the movie.
How it begins:
People do not give it credence that a fourteen-year-old girl could leave home and go off in the wintertime to avenge her father’s blood but it did not seem so strange then, although I will say it did not happen every day. I was just fourteen years of age when a coward going by the name of Tom Chaney shot my father down in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and robbed him of his life and his horse and $150 in cash money plus two California gold pieces that he carried in his trouser band.
Here is what happened. We had clear title to 480 acres of good bottom land on the south bank of the Arkansas River not far from Dardanelle in Yell County, Arkansas. Tom Chaney was a tenant but working for hire and not on shares. He turned up one day hungry and riding a gray horse that had a filthy blanket on his back and a rope halter instead of a bridle. Papa took pity on the fellow and gave him a job and a place to live. It was a cotton house made over into a little cabin. It had a good roof.
Tom Chaney said he was from Louisiana. He was a short man with cruel features. I will tell more about his face later. He carried a Henry rifle. He was a bachelor about twenty-five years of age.
In November when the last of the cotton was sold Papa took it in his head to go to Fort Smith and buy some ponies. He had heard that a stock trader there named Colonel Stonehill had bought a large parcel of cow ponies from Texas drovers on their way to Kansas and was now stuck with them. He was getting shed of them at bargain rates as he did not want to feed them over the winter. People in Arkansas did not think much of Texas mustang ponies. They were little and mean. They had never had anything but grass to eat and did not weigh over eight hundred pounds.
My rating:
‘True Grit’ by Charles Portis was originally serialized in the Saturday Evening Post and was published as a book by Simon & Schuster in 1968. It was published by The Overlook Press in 2010. 235 pages, including Afterword by Donna Tartt. $7.43 at Bookshop.org.
Recent pickups:
Here are my recent purchases and where I found them:
‘Scenes From a Childhood’ by Jon Fosse (Lofty Pigeon Books)
‘Sightseeing’ by Rattawut Lapcharoensap (Yu & Me Books)
‘Kappa’ by Ryunosuke Akutagawa (Yu & Me Books)
Books on GIF does not solicit review copies. We feature books we purchase at independent bookstores around New York City or on our travels, or were borrowed electronically from the Brooklyn Public Library.
What’s next:
In two weeks, you’ll get our annual gift guide. I’m still trying to sort out what to do after that. My current thinking is I’ll feature either ‘A Grain of Wheat,’ as mentioned above, or ‘The Game’ by A.S. Byatt, who died this week. Here are the covers:
Before you go:
ICYMI: Review #220
Read this: To learn more about the life and work of A.S. Byatt, I’ve been reading this lengthy and fascinating 2001 interview in The Paris Review this weekend. She recounts how she broke into the male-dominated English literary scene of the mid-20th century, pursued academia as well as fiction, and navigated a rivalry with her sister, another popular author.
Read this, too: Donna and I recently have started watching ‘The Crown,’ so I was delighted to see
’s PopPoetry newsletter include a guide to all the poetry used in the show. It’s a great companion as we make our way toward the end of Season 2. Definitely check it out!If you enjoyed this review:
Thanks for reading, and thanks especially to Donna for editing this newsletter!
Until next time,
Happy Thanksgiving!
MPV
I just read True Grit this summer. It’s the perfect novel.
I’ve actually never read this one! Now I want to!!!