Why people recommend it
Charles Portis's classic novel True Grit is a celebrated adventure story following young Mattie Ross as she hires a hardened U.S. Marshal to track down her father's killer. On The Book Review podcast, Pamela Paul recommended and discussed the novel after finishing it, while John Williams urged listeners to pick up the book, calling it the obvious choice and a nearly perfect piece of literature. Juman Katib mentioned reading True Grit over the holidays since she had never encountered it before, and A.O. Scott discussed the novel alongside Cormac McCarthy's work, praising both as sources for exceptionally scrupulous and faithful film adaptations. John Williams also noted that while Portis remained most famous as the author of True Grit, he was long regarded as an underappreciated writer whose readership reached a dedicated plateau. Across these podcast discussions, speakers celebrated the enduring appeal of Portis's unique narrative voice, his deadpan humor, and the timeless quality of his characters, cementing the novel's status as a masterwork of American fiction.
Who recommended it
- John Williams Recommended
- Juman Katib Discussed
- A.O. Scott Discussed
- Pamela Paul Recommended
John Williams — 2 mentions
“pis is by far I think still most famous as the author of True Grit but he was written about for so long as an undervalued or underere writer that I think he probably became as read as he was going to be”
“and I would highly urge people if you want to start with True Grit you can it's the obvious one and it's kind of a perfect book in its way”
Juman Katib — 1 mention
“so a lot of what I read is coming out this year so I'm not going to necessarily mention it but I did read True Grit by Charles pis”
A.O. Scott — 1 mention
“No Country for Old Men and True Grit are adapted from novels respectively by Cormac McCarthy and Charles poris and and they're very scrupulous adaptations”
Pamela Paul — 1 mention
“the first is the book that I just finished which was True Grit by Charles poris”
Also mentioned in the same episodes
Other mentions (3: passing, ad reads, own books)
“Dwight, you wrote about a book and an author that I have never read, which is my bad because I've always wanted to read True Grit. The Dog of the South by Charles Poris.”
“did you ever read the Charles poris novel True Grit”
“well you know for a long time I was waiting for something new from Charles poris you know the author of True Grit among many other things”