TRUE GRIT by Charles Portis

GRADE: B+

This is a great story with a wonderful, courageous, young female protagonist, which you don't see too often in Westerns. After her father is shot down by a low-down coward while on a trip to Fort Smith, 14-year old Mattie Ross courageously sets out on an adventure deep into Indian territory to avenge him, with the help of a one-eyed, washed-up marshal and a fancy Texas Ranger. The story is very exciting and sometimes very funny. I thought the climax left a little to be desired and there were a few missed opportunities, but otherwise I really enjoyed this popular Western classic.

“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. 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.”