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4.08 AVERAGE
4.08 AVERAGE
A fun, quick read that reminded me a lot of watching the movie (Coen Brothers version, I haven't and probably won't see the John Wayne version). The comic tone is there, the characters are distinctive, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a good comic tone without being laugh out loud funny. I will definitely be checking out some of Portis's other stuff.
I love it when a book transports you to a time and place; I thoroughly enjoyed the trip to late 1800’s Arkansas.
dark
funny
hopeful
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
While I am familiar with the story (thanks to the movies and my dad) it was an enjoyable listen evening knowing it. What TV doesn't show is Maddie's faith and just her overall wit, spunk and straight-forwardness that make her character enjoyable.
Overall a fun and different read thanks to book club.
Overall a fun and different read thanks to book club.
6 stars. I have the audio, beautifully read by Donna Tartt, and it has joined On the Road and Pamuk's Istanbul in the Permanent and Indispensable folder on my phone for regular revisits.
A Sojourn of Southern Literature #1:
This is a masterpiece and not talked about nearly enough for how good it is:
- It's a story that can only happen in Arkansas and Oklahoma. Move it anywhere else and you lose a piece of its soul. The sense of place is arresting.
- Simple, simple, simple plot: get Tom Chaney. It's captured in the perfect first sentence: "PEOPLE DO not give it credence that a fourteen-year-old girl could leave home and go off in the wintertime to avenge her father's blood but it did not seem so strange then, although I will say it did not happen every day."
- Rooster Cogburn is not a man spinning a legend about himself, he's not a mythical figure. He's a human broken by the Civil War and the harsh country hasn't stopped breaking him. Yet even he can live up to one piece of his own legend "Fill your hand you son of a bitch!" John Wayne playing him at the end of his career is perfect, Bridges is dang near close.
- I hope my daughter is not like Mattie Ross and forced to bite every hand that comes near her in a harsh world. But also, in a way I hope she is: resilient to the core, loyal to those she loves.
This is a masterpiece and not talked about nearly enough for how good it is:
- It's a story that can only happen in Arkansas and Oklahoma. Move it anywhere else and you lose a piece of its soul. The sense of place is arresting.
- Simple, simple, simple plot: get Tom Chaney. It's captured in the perfect first sentence: "PEOPLE DO not give it credence that a fourteen-year-old girl could leave home and go off in the wintertime to avenge her father's blood but it did not seem so strange then, although I will say it did not happen every day."
- Rooster Cogburn is not a man spinning a legend about himself, he's not a mythical figure. He's a human broken by the Civil War and the harsh country hasn't stopped breaking him. Yet even he can live up to one piece of his own legend "Fill your hand you son of a bitch!" John Wayne playing him at the end of his career is perfect, Bridges is dang near close.
- I hope my daughter is not like Mattie Ross and forced to bite every hand that comes near her in a harsh world. But also, in a way I hope she is: resilient to the core, loyal to those she loves.
adventurous
emotional
funny
tense
fast-paced
This one was tough to rate. The story is enjoyable - like an American Western Canterbury Tale, but it’s not enjoyable sitting in the Racism of the 1960s when the book was published without any kind of criticism or questioning of it. Seemingly if the author’s goal was to inhabit the actual setting of the book - the south directly following the Civil War, the racism would have been much more overt and violent. It’s like he threw in what was acceptable at the time of writing.