Dog of the South review
By Charles Michaud
[
A review of Dog of the South, by Charles Portis,
Transcribed by Alex T. Moore from Library Journal (April 15, 1979),
for non-commercial use on The Unofficial Charles Portis Website
(http://charlesportis.cjb.net).
]

At 26, Ray Midge is an arrested adolescent, continually changing
what he intends to do with his life, but doing nothing more than
reading in his room, mostly about the Civil War.  When his wife 
runs off with her former husband, a harebrained radical arrested 
for sending threatening letters to the President, Midge takes off
after them as much to reclaim his car as his wife.  He tracks them
across Mexico to British Honduras, traveling through a whacky
world populated by zany characters.  Portis' first novel since
True Grit is a wildly funny book, but its theme is serious.  The
title is emblematic of that theme:  it refers to a school bus 
converted into a psychadelically painted camper, now broken down 
and abandoned like the spiritual vehicles that carried the people
of this fine novel through their world.