Norwood

By: Charles Portis

Narrated by: David Aaron Baker

Length: 4 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

An American literary treasure, Charles Portis penned the Western classic True Grit. Set in the 1960s, Norwood is a picaresque romp taking audiences on a journey from Texas to New York and back again. An ex-marine, troubadour Norwood Pratt is on a mission to recover money he once loaned to a buddy in the service. Along the way, he gets into all manner of trouble involving stolen cars, beautiful women, and a chicken with a college education.

©1966 Charles Portis (P)2013 Recorded Books

Critic reviews

• 10 Best Audiobooks of 2013 (Salon)

"….Baker seems to have marinated in Portis’ sensibility, a voice and view of the world that could be likened to a lighter version of Flannery O'Connor. If what you like best about the FX series 'Justified' is the repartee and the humor, then come on down. For me, this recording triggered a Portis binge, so I can also recommend the recording of 'True Grit' narrated by none other than Donna Tartt, also a fan." (Laura Miller, Salon)

"[A] glimpse of how a 20th century Mark Twain might write.” ( Entertainment Tonight)

“…David Aaron Baker does a commendable job bringing the characters to life.” ( AudioFile)

A great American road trip

This book evokes memories I never made. But if Id lived in Ralph decades ago, I hope I would have had the kind of character Norwood displayed. Sometimes being plain spoken makes life feel more true. Enjoy this summer adventure!

Great narration

Narrator did a great job. Glad it was a short book. That’s all I can say.

Enjoyable listen

Great old fashion story telling. To me the sign of a good author is being able to put you in the story and making it come alive. I felt I was there with each character. They all just came alive. Especially in New York, with just a few words I could feel, smell and experience the city as he did. What a fun journey. This is a story I could listen to again.

Oddball Odyssey

Here’s another eccentric adventure from Charles Portis and another perfect read by David Aaron Baker.

On his odyssey, up and out of the South to New York City and back, a small-town Texan named Norwood sees a lot of things.

“He saw himself on television at Robert Ripley’s Believe It or Not Auditorium, and looked at all the curios downstairs, believing most of them, but not believing the one about Marshall W. M. Pittman of Wharton, Texas, shooting a bullet right into a crook’s gun in 1932. Still, there was the gun, and why would they make it up?”

And that may be Charles Portis in a nutshell. He makes it up because it’s a compelling sketch, and not because it goes anywhere in particular. If there are any great life’s lessons to be learned here, they are well concealed.

He defines his characters through their experiences, and they are often a sensory feast. The sound of an empty peach can, rattling on the pavement after a departing car, is so sharp, you’ll swear you heard it yourself.

Of a woman he meets on a Trailways bus: “Her husband had disappeared two years before, and was subsequently found working as an able seaman on a sulfur boat, through a rude postcard he had foolishly sent her from Algiers, Louisiana. He was back home now, but living in the garage, and drinking.”

Where does he get this stuff?

And at the terminal: “A dozen or so Marines in limp khakis and with ruined shoeshines were hanging about the station waiting for the last liberty bus back. Fatigue and unhappiness were in their faces, as of young men whose shorts are bunching up.”

Most of the characters are rather eloquently befuddled by life, and the swindlers who prey on them only slightly sharper. In a battle of wits, as the old saying goes, their opponents have come unarmed. But there is something about naïve personalities that makes them interesting. In Portis’ world, they engage more fully with everything around them. They are more deeply affected.

Will Norwood reach his destination safely? Will he achieve his vague ambitions, whatever they may be? The best thing is, it really doesn’t matter. The journey, stitched together in a hundred hilarious, often bewildering little scenes, is far more important than the journey’s end.

True Grit

I found this author again hitting the mark with this book called Norwood. Excellent book on the 1930s and how people suffered through the Great depression.

Feels like a first novel

Portis's wit is on display here, and his ear for funny dialogue and characters that obsess over the dumbest little things, but it feels very much like a first novel or something extended from a short story, the edges are a little rougher than they'd be later.

Very entertaining

I read Norwood about a year ago and liked it fine. Listening to it was better. David Baker made the story come alive.

pretty good Portis

this story reads like a collection of ideas instead of a novel. The titular character doesn't really have an arc so much as a series of events. it's a little like As I Lay Dying accept nowhere near as good. Portis went on to do much better things, but this is enjoyable enough.

What A Romp

Loved this story and this author’s writing. And the narration was priceless! Will likely read it again.