True Grit

By: Charles Portis

Narrated by: Donna Tartt

Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

Mattie Ross, a 14-year-old girl from Dardanelle, Arkansas, sets out to avenge her Daddy who was shot to death by a no-good outlaw. Mattie convinces one-eyed "Rooster" Cogburn, the meanest U.S. marshal in the land, to ride along with her. In True Grit, we have a true American classic, as young Mattie, as vital as she is innocent, outdickers and outmaneuvers the hard-bitten men of the trail in a legend that will last through the ages.

©1968 Charles Portis (P)2006 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

"Charles Portis is perhaps the most original, indescribable sui generis talent overlooked by literary culture in America." ( Esquire)

“Tom Wolfe, who worked with Portis as a reporter at the New York Herald-Tribune in the early 1960s called him – the original laconic cutup. A generation of novelists since then have simply regarded him as a writers-writer and have made his name a sort of secret password. Soon, they’ll no longer have him to themselves.” ( Rolling Stone Magazine)

“Like Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn and Thomas Berger’s Little Big Man, Charles Portis’s True Grit captures the nanve elegance of the American voice.” (Jonathan Lethem)

Joyous listen.

I love this book. Somewhere between to kill a mockingbird and deliverance. Ear candy. This goes in my repeat column.

Loved the performance...

Loved the movie, loved the book, and loved the performance...

Classic tale of pluck and bravery.

Who has the true grit?

Loved listening to Donna Tartt read True Grit. Everyone should listen to Matty our young heroine (14) with lots of true grit tell her story. Matty sets out to find her dad’s killer Tom. She winds up with a couple of side kicks who also have great grit. She narrates the story. Lots of unsavory characters too. So glad that I picked this book for a car trip. I thought my husband would like it and little did I know that I would love it.

fantastic reading of a Great American novel

The story is told from the vantage point of a precocious 14-year-old girl from Arkansas, and the narrator channels her voice perfectly, as well as taking on the voices and personalities of the other major characters. Truthfully, this was one of the finest listening experiences I've had since joining Audible.

loved it!

I found Maddy to be the most endearing character. I enjoyed this story very much. The performance of the narrator was very well done as well.

The true grit comic is sincere

This true grit comic is so awesome and cool 😎 because of all the different types of fee there are

it's simple, but simply great.

it is so true to the human nature, and just perfect how Portis passes the innocence of a child, and after listening you realize the one got True Grit is Mattie Ross. And the will to get her revenge for her father's death.

Classic

Donna Tart reveals another facet. As she acknowledges, it is not Huck Finn but in the same cannon.

Donna Tartt's Narration of True Grit by Charles Po

Easily one of the best story telling audios in my library! Donna Tartt has a sweet southern twang and makes listening to this exciting adventure a real pleasure!

One "bring your man to justice" story I like

I put this on in the car, thinking my Dad would like it. But I really, really liked it. The reader was amazing. I doubt that I would have gotten through it reading it myself. Quite a bit different than the first movie. The title is supposed to refer to Rooster Cogburn, but really refers to the narrator of the book telling the story of when she was a young 14 year old girl who hires Cogburn to track down the man who murdered her father. I'm not usually one for westerns or "bring your man to justice" stories but this was the exception.