True Grit, by Charles Portis

Portis, Charles, True Grit, 1968

True Grit is, truly, sand in your teeth gritty. I was surprised when I learned that the famous movie(s) were made from a kid’s book.  I bought the book thinking, mistakenly, that I might find a classic of juvenile fiction with a strong female hero—something always worth looking for (Pippi Longstocking only goes so far). And I got what I sought. The hero, Mattie, is 14 years old and is the strongest, grittiest person in the book—and the one with the least heart. She takes on the job of avenging her father’s murder and recovering his property. She’s the oldest and that’s how it is. Mattie is pretty cold-blooded, using various aspects and features of her father’s death (and corpse) to get a grub stake for her quest. Her most expensive purchase is the services of a rogue U.S. Marshall, Reuben “Rooster” Cogburn. Rooster is the color in this book, but he is not the main character. There is no main character, really, since Mattie is so detached. They set out into Indian Country (currently Oklahoma) with a Texas Ranger to meet their quarry. The action of the book is exciting and authentic. I felt like I was with them. My stomach growled when they were hungry. My body ached with their injuries.

Unfortunately for modern children’s literature, True Grit is graphic and politically incorrect. People get knifed, hacked, rolled under horses, shot in many body regions, all in detail. Theft, corruption, child abuse, prostitution, hard drinking, smoking, all sorts of other nastinesses, are set along the path of the book with little comment about their immorality. Mattie’s sanctimonious beliefs, spouted from memory from Sunday School pamphlets, come across as silly and juvenile. She breaks the law and the commandments pretty frequently and then magics it away with the self-serving wand of rationalization. It would be funny if it weren’t done so grimly.

Mattie is strangely detached, almost like a machine. She is relentless and focused. But narrator-Mattie is much older, and I’ve heard that flatness in elderly people’s voices. They know the details of a story by heart, by rote, and no longer bring forth the emotion. The flatness of the tone combined with the excitement of the action is part of what makes the book so interesting and makes it feel like a true historical account. (There is also a western character type you see in Clint Eastwood movies and Dust Bowl photographs—the person who is uneducated, bone tired and sees no future but huge amounts of meaningless work. William Faulkner knew these people. Mattie seems to have started young at such hopelessness. Don’t feel. It won’t get you anywhere.)

I liked this book a lot, but I can’t say why. It had a flavor of authenticity, was fast-paced, was set in an interesting place and time, and was peculiar.

BTW: This review will be included in my children’s literature review collection. I have no idea whether young people would like it or whether any librarian would ever think it appropriate to recommend. I might try Portis’s first book, Norwood, to see if it deepens my understanding of the author’s purposes.

 Spoilers in this review: None.

Best bits: (1) Anything and everything having to do with the horses—buying, trading, saddling, feeding, riding, whatever. I’ve read a ton of horse books over the past three years (on my children’s literature project) and True Grit ranks with the best. (2) Mattie’s rescue.

Writer’s note: As a poet, I sometimes try to use one-syllable words and easy words only. For example, one of my favorite of my own lines is “the sky weeped rain” and “look hard, you see trees/look soft, you see rain.” This book adheres to that principle beautifully. Clear, plain language is the rice and beans of writing. Plainness speaks to the heart. Example with multisyllable words highlighted (from page 204):

Rooster said, “Can you hold to my neck?”

I said, “Yes, I will try.” There were two dark red holes in his face with dried rivulets of blood under them where shotgun pellets had struck him.

He stooped down and I wrapped my right arm around his neck and lay against his back. He tried to climb the rope hand over hand with his feet against the sides of the pit but he made only about three pulls and had to drop back down.

Main complaint: I wanted Mattie to be more like a fictional character and less like herself. I wanted Anne of Green Gables without the syrup. What a shock to find out what that looked like in Mattie.

Minor complaint: (1) The type runs too far into the middle of the book. Pull it out of the gutter, folks! (2) The cover is very dark, which is moody, but not at all alluring. (3) I know lots of people who have seen this story on film, but no one else who has read it. I need more points of view on this book.

Hidden gifts: (1) True Grit has a great opening paragraph—you turn a page: you’re in a really bleak Wonderland. (2) I learned a little bit about horse trading.

Physical description: Book-shaped (traditional proportions); published by Simon & Schuster; paperback; front matter includes a dedication page and half-title page (I like that); not a smidge of end matter; three or four unnumbered chapters; 215 pages.

Typo: I found one, but I can’t remember where it was.