True Grit

Mattie Ross’ father is dead, and she knows who did it. Now she’s looking for someone with grit to help her avenge his murder.

Didn’t care for this at all. I hoped I was in for another “Lonesome Dove” experience, but absolutely did not get that. The plot was simple and straightforward, lacked compelling characters, had an annoying protagonist, and an ending which felt meaningless. At points where an author like McMurty would break your heart with sparse, compelling language, Portis just.… wastes the opportunity to make the reader feel anything other than tedium. I also found Mattie’s compulsive quirk of putting random words in scare quotes increasingly annoying.

This is a really funny book.

The afterword by Donna Tartt in the Overlook Press edition taught me that this book was taught in Honors English classes and then fell out of favor (probably due to the John Wayne film based on it).