TRUE GRIT, by Charles Portis

Join us for an online conversation about True Grit, Charles Portis' celebrated 1968 novel of danger and adventure in the Old West.

True Grit tells the story of Mattie Ross, who is only fourteen when the coward Tom Chaney shoots her father in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and robs him of his life, his horse, and $150 in cash. While stubbornly determined to avenge her father, Mattie is smart enough to know she can't go after a violent killer all by herself. With tenacity and some fast-talking, she manages to hire mean-tempered, one-eyed US Marshal "Rooster" Cogburn to accompany her into Indian Territory to track down the despicable outlaw and see him hanged.

Along the way they meet a vain, good-looking Texas Ranger named LaBoeuf, who persuades Rooster to abandon Mattie and team up with him to capture Chaney alive and collect the bounty for a different murder he committed in Texas. But the two lawmen have seriously underestimated the smart, tenacious teenager!

Not just a classic Western, True Grit is an undeniable classic of American literature as quirky, original, and unflinching as Mattie Ross herself.

Book length: 240 pages

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