True grit

a novel

215 pages

English language

Published Dec. 15, 2003 by Overlook Press.

ISBN:
978-1-58567-369-8
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4 stars (32 reviews)

True Grit is Charles Portis' most famous novel--first published in 1968. It tells the story of Mattie Ross, who is just fourteen years of age when a coward going by the name of Tom Chaney shoots her father down in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and robs him of his life, his horse, and $150 in cash money. Mattie leaves home to avenge her father's blood. With the one-eyed Rooster Cogburn, the meanest available U.S. Marshal, by her side, Mattie pursues the homicide into Indian Territory.

True Grit is eccentric, cool, straight, and unflinching, like Mattie herself. From a writer of true cult status, this is an American classic through and through.

22 editions

Great book: concise, funny, dark and dirty

5 stars

What a book, really. We get told the story of how a fourteen year old daughter sees the revenging dead of the killer of her father through, by contracting a US marshal and riding with him into Native territory. The story is told in her voice, with some southern dialect and some 19th century dialect, bringing her Old testament justice, her upraising, her intelligence and stuborness to funny, breathtaking life.

The marshal she obliges to catch or kill the killer is drunken Rooster Cogburn, a survivor of the Civil War who rode with a young Jesse James.

The plot mostly shows us Mattie Ross, Cogburn and the other marshal that rides with them, LaBoeuf. We only shortly meet Tom Chaney, the killer, or Lucky Ned the gang leader he rides with. It takes some wrangling for Mattie to get Cogburn to lift his arse, then to have Cogburn and LaBoeuf …

Review of 'True Grit' on 'Storygraph'

5 stars

This was a great read.

Fourteen year old Maddie Ross is one of the best characters I’ve come across in years; smart, fiery, tenacious and resourceful. More than a match for Rooster Cogburn (who she understands has grit), LaBoeuf (pronounced “La Beef”) and Tom Chaney (who shot her father to death in Fort Smith and robbed him of two gold pieces and stole his mare).

Maddie’s narration is delightful; totally believable, full of character, humour and amazing period detail. The final battle is thrilling and becomes downright macabre (like something from an Indiana Jones movie).

Definitely recommended.

Review of 'True grit' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

I hadn't read this book mainly for the same reason it fell out of favor in American literature courses. It was tarnished by the version portrayed in the John Wayne film. So I have just been living this whole time assuming the movie(s) were the more significant properties and that the book had merely the same curiosity as many generative IPs in our modern filmmaking process. Not so! I am very happy to report (if you need me to) that this is a masterpiece of craftsmanship and worthy of its former place in classroom reading lists (Huckleberry Finn, To Kill A Mockingbird, etc).

Portis created a fantastic narrator in Hattie Ross and the perspective of the tale, the use of time, forges a story with so many stand out scenes and clever elements of craft that I spent most of the read taking notes. I'll be returning to this one.

Review of 'True grit' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

"What have you done when you have bested a fool?"

Young me, who read things like Journey to the Center of the Earth, Jurassic Park, and Magic Kingdom for Sale would have loved this book. This book has a plucky, 14-year-old female lead character, who's always got a witty comeback and a plan of action, all the things I loved as a kid. As it is, I really liked it, but it just wasn't geared towards my age group.

Mattie's father was killed before the book starts out, and we're introduced to her as she begins her quest for vengeance. In her way is a world doubly convinced that a 14 year old, let alone a 14 year old female, is incapable of going out into the wide Wild West world to track a killer and bring him to justice. The world is sorely mistaken, and has drastically …

Review of 'True grit' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

2 1/2 stars

I'm not a big fan of the western genre so maybe I'm not the one who should rate this novel. It was okay at best. It seemed very superficially written, like the writer was in a big hurry to bang this one out. Lonesome Dove it was not. If you're looking for a good, epic western, may I recommend [b:Lonesome Dove|256008|Lonesome Dove|Larry McMurtry|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1559668037l/256008.SY75.jpg|3281465] book for you? I literally kept falling asleep reading this here, this here. Some people rate this very highly and I don't know why. They must not have read Lonesome Dove, haha. Or maybe they saw the movie first.

Review of 'True grit' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Many reporters think they have a novel or two in them and some do. The novels are seldom good ones though and are often stories about daring young reporters who stumble upon dark doings by powerful people, nefarious types who need to be exposed by ... a daring young reporter. The prose is efficient and tight until they overreach and try for “literature.” That’s when it’s hooted off the stage.
Sometimes, though, a reporter’s voice is just right for the story, and Charles Portis’s 1968 novelTrue Grit is one of those times. Portis has a degree in journalism and worked in the field from 1958 to 1964.
If you’ve seen either production of the movie, the 1969 version or the 2010 Joel and Ethan Coen one, the narrator’s voice will be familiar. It belongs to the aging version of 14-year-old Mattie Ross, a hyper-logical, highly intelligent, deeply religious Arkansan …

Review of 'True grit' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

It's fascinating to read True Grit, especially in view of the original film (I haven't seen the more recent remake yet). In the film (and in some other Westerns since) the characters speak in sentences that have few contractions and are almost awkward in their formality. I first read the novel when I was a teenager, and took it at face value.

However, True Grit (the novel) is actually an extremely skillful example of an unreliable narrator. Mattie Ross is telling the story of her search for her father's killer 25 years after the event; she is a smart, inflexible, formal woman who knows what's right. She is telling the story in her own voice -- and all the characters in it talk in her voice as well.

And she is not a great writer. Her descriptions are often stilted, and she sometimes goes into weird digressions. The dialog she …

Review of 'True Grit' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

I was curious to read this because it is the basis of the films. Even though the back cover has all sorts of praise remarks from reviews and claims sales of about 1.5 million books, I was not really impressed. It is not a bad book; it just is not that great, and I am betting the film makers probably embellished it quite a bit. It is your basic revenge story. Mattie Ross's father was killed in cold blood by a man he had hired, stealing his horse, money, and two gold pieces. Mattie then hires the meanest U.S. Marshall she can find, Rooster Cogburn, to go after the man, who is now hiding in Indian Territory. A Texas Ranger who is after the same man joins them.

The picture and view of the Old West is very good. Rooster's character is well drawn as are the others. For me, …

Review of 'True grit' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Very spare style, told from Mattie's view, that suits the material well. Even though I haven't seen the original, it's difficult not to picture John Wayne in the role of Rooster. This detracts a bit from the enjoyment of the book; no fault of the author or text.

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Subjects

  • Teenage girls -- Fiction
  • Fathers -- Death -- Fiction
  • United States marshals -- Fiction
  • Outlaws -- Fiction
  • Revenge -- Fiction