True Grit by Charles Portis
Another novel that makes appearances on many lists of essential Westerns, I’m happy to report that I enjoyed True Grit far more than Hondo.
A very funny, fast-moving and ultimately touching story with consistently terrific dialogue, Portis’ book has been adapted twice for the silver screen. The first, released in 1969 soon after the book’s release, starred John Wayne as one-eyed U.S. Marshall Rooster Cogburn. More recently the film was re-made by the Coen brothers with Jeff Bridges in the lead role. If you only watch one of them, the Coen brothers adaption is the superior film on a number of levels though the original enjoys ‘classic’ status as many of Wayne’s pictures do (though often dubiously in my eyes).
The plot is as simple and direct as the novel’s protagonist, the precocious 14 year-old Mattie. She explains precisely:
I was just fourteen years of age when a coward going by the name Tom Chaney shot my father down in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and robbed him of his life and his horse and $150 in cash money plus two California gold pieces that he carried in his trouser band.
Mattie decides she will bring the vagabond farmhand Chaney to justice and after inquiring after the best man for the job, she chooses Cogburn, being told he is a man of ‘true grit’. Cogburn is an unlikely hero. Overweight, aging and alcoholic, Cogburn is a classic anti-hero. A man we later learn has roamed and rambled and now found himself as a somewhat circumspect federal marshal.
Mattie later discovers that another lawman is hot on Chaney’s trail as well, the Texas Ranger known as LaBoeuf. And so Mattie, Cogburn and LaBoeuf head out on their adventure to apprehend him. LaBoeuf and Cogburn spend considerable time trying to be rid of Mattie, while Mattie stays doggedly along their side, ensuring the job is done properly.
The dialogue throughout is clever, realistic and very funny. I particularly enjoyed an early exchange between Mattie and an exasperated Colonel Stonehill who had the misfortune of selling some ponies to Mattie’s late father and now must bear her attempts at restitution.
This is a 50 year-old novel that reads like a modern screenplay. I’m not surprised the Coen brothers saw so much potential in reviving it for modern audiences. For my purposes, True Grit served as an entertaining Western yarn set during the final year of Grant’s presidency. I enjoyed it thoroughly.