True Grit
Author unknown
[
A review of True Grit, by Charles Portis,
Transcribed by Alex T. Moore from The Nation (August 5, 1968), 
for non-commercial use on The Unofficial Charles Portis Website 
(http://charlesportis.cjb.net).
]

Mattie Ross, the narrator of True Grit, calls it "my true account of 
how I avenged Frank Ross's blood over in the Choctaw Nation when the 
snow was on the ground."  Mattie is 14 when it all happens, back in 
the 1880s, and her story of how she hired a U.S. marshal and joined up 
with a Texas Ranger to catch her daddy's killer, fell into the hands 
of a deadly, good-natured bandit, got snake-bitten, and lived to tell 
the tale back home in Yell County, Ark., fifty years later is pure, 
beautiful corn.  Mr. Portis, who wrote Norwood, is what they used to 
call a natural, but there's more to it than that.  True Grit is surely 
some kind of classic; readers of William Eastlake might appreciate it 
best, but only a mean person won't enjoy it.  If there are people who 
still follow the custom, this is a fine book to read aloud.