In the middle of reading the new TR biography, I step out and read this Portis classic. Even though "True Grit" is Portis's most famous novel, this little gem is my favorite.
Norwood Pratt is a good old boy, living in Ralph, Texas, down around Texarkana. He gets discharged from the service early so he can go home and take care of his sister Vernell, who needs constant service because she is basically worthless. Vernell ends marrying another worthless person in one Bill Bird. Three's a crowd in a small house, so the naive Norwood hits the road driving a stolen car and pulling another one behind him to New York. If Norwood suspects the cars are stolen to start with you don't know it. In the end, after he sheds some of his innocence,he does confront the man who put him in the stolen car and says he knows the cars were stolen.
Norwood has to go to New York anyway to collect $70 owed to him by a fellow serviceman. He's going to NY to collect $70. That's a lot of money to Norwood.
Along the way he crosses the bridge at Memphis and ends up ditching the cars and taking the bus to NY. He encounters some crazy characters including a midget on his way to Hollywood, late of a circus, but on his way now California to make it in show business. Isn't all Southern literature about crazy people?
By the end of the story, Norwood has gained some assertiveness and is taking charge of his life. Along the way, this book is laugh-out-loud funny, Southern fiction at its best. I highly recommend it.
No comments:
Post a Comment