{"product_id":"charles-portis-collected-works-loa-369-norwood-true-grit-the-dog-of-the-south-masters-of-atlantis-gringos-stories-other-writings-9781598537468","title":"Charles Portis: Collected Works (Loa #369): Norwood \/ True Grit \/ The Dog of the South \/ Masters of Atlantis \/ Gringos \/ Stories \u0026 Other Writings","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe ultimate Portis: for the first time in one collector's volume, the complete fiction and collected nonfiction of the author of \u003ci\u003eTrue Grit\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eRediscover a comic genius and master storyteller comparable to Mark Twain \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Charles Portis is one of the great pure pleasures available in American literature.\" \u003cb\u003e--Ron Rosenbaum\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Like Mark Twain's \u003ci\u003eHuckleberry Finn\u003c\/i\u003e and Thomas Berger's \u003ci\u003eLittle Big Man\u003c\/i\u003e, Charles Portis's \u003ci\u003eTrue Grit\u003c\/i\u003e captures the naïve elegance of the American voice.\" \u003cb\u003e--Jonathan Lethem\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"No living Southern writer captures the spoken idioms of the South as artfully as Portis does.\" \u003cb\u003e--Donna Tartt\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"His fiction is the funniest I know.\" \u003cb\u003e--Roy Blount, Jr.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eTwice adapted as a film, first in a version starring John Wayne and then by the Coen Brothers, \u003cb\u003eTrue Grit\u003c\/b\u003e is a wonder of novelistic perfection, told in the unforgettable voice of 14-year-old Mattie Ross as she sets out to avenge her murdered father in a quest that brings her out of her native Arkansas and into the wilds of the Choctaw Nation of the 1870s. One of the great literary Westerns, it is also a novel that has invited comparison with \u003ci\u003eThe Wizard of Oz\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eAlice in Wonderland\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eAdventures of Huckleberry Finn\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003ePortis's deadpan debut novel \u003cb\u003eNorwood \u003c\/b\u003e(1966) is, like \u003ci\u003eTrue Grit\u003c\/i\u003e, the story of a quest, though here the stakes are far lower: an auto mechanic from Texas embarks on a madcap journey to New York City to try and recover $70 owed to him from an Army buddy. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e A book that according to Roy Blount Jr. \"no one should die without having read,\" \u003cb\u003eThe Dog of the South \u003c\/b\u003e(1979) is yet a third saga of pursuit, this time all the way to Central America. Ray Midge is on the road looking for the man who has run off with his car (and of somewhat less interest to him, his wife.) \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eMasters of Atlantis \u003c\/b\u003e(1985) conjures the fictional cult of Gnomonism and takes an uproarious plunge into the dark heart of conspiratorial thinking and schismatic in-fighting. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eGringos \u003c\/b\u003e(1991), set in Mexico, follows an expatriate ex-Marine in his search to find a UFO hunter gone missing in the Yucatan, amid a supporting cast of archaeologists, drug-addled hippie millenarians, and the son of the \"bravest dog in all Mexico.\" \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA generous gathering of the nonfiction reveals Portis's skills as a reporter, above all in his coverage of the Civil Rights Movement; his appreciation of Arkansas history and landscape, as in \"The Forgotten River\"; and his poignancy as a family memoirist, on display in his recollection \"Combinations of Jacksons.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Library of America\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 04\/04\/2023\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781598537468\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 1216\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.25lbs","brand":"Charles Portis","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42729556279477,"sku":"9781598537468","price":38.25,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_3a7be58f-dc7d-4efb-ae55-c0a7e557a81a.jpg?v=1675803606","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/charles-portis-collected-works-loa-369-norwood-true-grit-the-dog-of-the-south-masters-of-atlantis-gringos-stories-other-writings-9781598537468","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}