Don’t Skip This: True Grit

Remember that summer reading list in high school that you blew off? There were some pretty great titles you skipped and you’ve spent your adult life hearing references to them. What did you miss? And why are these titles still thrown around today? Are they really that good? Here’s your chance to redeem yourself: we’re taking a candid look at a lot of these books and building a case for finally picking up that book years later.

True Grit

Author:
Charles Portis
Length:
Pretty short
Difficulty:
Very easy
Selling point:
True Grit is a perfect Sunday afternoon novel. It will entertain your ass and your brain right off.

True Gist:
You already know the gist of True Grit because it’s the same as in the movie, and the movie was the only film to come out last year that could equally please you, your mom, your dad, your uncles, your aunts, the cousins they bred, your grandma, and your grandpa (your ma’s parents are no longer with us). Even your little sister replaced her stupid Bella and Edward looking forlorn poster with one of Mattie Ross and Rooster Cogburn looking badass (sentence written in a perfect world).

It will entertain your ass and your brain right off.

What you’re getting into:
I don’t expect True Grit will ever enter our goofy literary canon, but it should for its ability to entertain with economy, its original, fully-realized characters (one of which has entered our goofy pop culture canon for sure), and its open willingness to let silence and implication do the dramatic heavy lifting. Also, it’s hilarious, and we have far too few funny English 101 selections.

To me, there is nothing more beautiful in the narrative arts than economy paired with thematic and stylistic concentration. When a book, movie, album, or whatever knows exactly what it’s doing and does it without any unnecessary bullshit, I will always fall in love. I’ve been reading a lot of smaller books lately, and when they’re this rock solid, it really makes epic storytelling seem bloated and self-congratulating. (Guess who just read A Song of Fire and Ice.) After all, Shakespeare’s supposed to be the greatest writer ever, and his longest play can be read in under three hours.

True Grit‘s stylistic concentration remains consistent throughout thanks to Mattie Ross’ unique, first-person voice. As in the film, Mattie is a cold, calculating child able to cower bandits and businessmen alike into adhering to the reality she demands, despite needing to stuff her cowboy hat with newspaper to make it fit. We get a lot more of Mattie’s opinions in the book, especially on matters religious and political, and her complete lack of artifice and humor forms an even deeper opportunity for character based comedy.

Because Mattie seems incapable of lying or seeing anything other than stark reality, she’s one of literature’s more reliable narrators. As a result, her presentation of Cogburn and La Beef do not feel shaded in any way by her own feelings. The obvious standout between the two is Cogburn, whose drunken ramblings and low morals never get old. But my favorite is La Beef. I find his puffed-up bravado and foolish pride hilarious, though I don’t know if my enjoyment has been enhanced somewhat by Matt Damon’s great depiction in the film. Portis brilliantly spends the whole book on their verbal buffoonery only to surprise us with their considerable talents in the end. They are both effective lawmen, proving one can be both silly and worth taking seriously.

Many aspects of True Grit that would be really sad in another story go without emphasis simply because Mattie isn’t the type of person who dwells on sentiment. For instance, it’s left to us to compare Mattie’s extreme intelligence with her mother’s inability to read or do math and therefore realize what kind of man her father must have been and how much she lost with his murder. She’s hellbent on revenge, sure, but she never once comments on the grief you know she must feel.

She’s hellbent on revenge, sure, but she never once comments on the grief you know she must feel.

Common misconceptions:
Maybe you have a problem with reading westerns. I honestly haven’t read many myself, unless you count The Dark Tower books, so I don’t know how this rates as a genre book. There’s a classic western-type showdown at the end though, and they thought it was regular enough to adapt it in the John Wayne era, so it seems pretty legit. If that’s a problem for you, A) why? and B) I think the book is far more a comedy than a western.

Is it still worth it?
Oh yeah. If you like the movie, then you must check out the book. It reads like a very generous director’s cut of a story you already love. Much of the film’s dialog was taken verbatim from the novel, only the novel has even more of it. At the same time, it’s different enough plot wise to keep you from slipping into boredom. Even lobotomized folks know this one is a no-brainer.

Even lobotomized folks know this one is a no-brainer.

Where can I find it?
Here’s where the trouble sets in. You can get True Grit on kindle, but it and all other Charles Portis novels are a whopping $12.99. Let me just say, anything that costs over $9.99 on kindle is bullshit. (Guess who just read A Song of Fire and Ice.) There are many copies out there now because of the recent movie, so maybe you can find one used. Or there’s always your library, if yours hasn’t been closed down yet.