New and Noteworthy Paperbacks
By Scott Veale
[
A review of Norwood, by Charles Portis,
Transcribed by Alex T. Moore from The New York Times (November 10, 1985), 
for non-commercial use on The Unofficial Charles Portis Website 
(http://charlesportis.cjb.net).
]

Norwood Pratt is a young former marine who works at a gas station in 
Ralph, Tex., and aspires to fame and fortune as a country-and-western 
star. A chance encounter with Grady Fring the Kredit King leads him to 
New York City; he returns on a bus, meeting the former 
''world's-smallest-perfect-man,'' among others. The tale's funniness 
derives, reviewers said in 1966, from the author's perfect ear for 
dialogue and ''Norwood's unstinting goodwill in a world of junk.''