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)

Outstanding book

A must read. Portis’ use of idioms and southern speech is rich and entertaining. Mattie Ross is like no other heroine you will read about and though she is headstrong and difficult at times, she is noble, dutiful and strong-hearted. It reads like a true story and you will want to read again and again.

A Favorite!

Best narrator for this book! Donna Tartt brings Mattie to life in such a vivid, realistic and cinematic way. One of my favorite books to re-read (listen) to. Portis writes each character brilliantly, but the gumption and stubbornness, as well as the self-righteousness of Mattie, is what brings me back again and again.

Outstanding!

True Grit is a jewel of a book and having Donna Tartt read it makes it even better!

Bravo 👏👏👏

Excellent story that was narrated with passion and precision. A classic novel, to be sure.

Better than both movies

I just love this story but the narrator gives me pause. Good grief, I’ve heard 6 year olds read a story better than this narrator. It’s like a droning noise in my head that I won’t soon rid of.

Excellent audible

Reading the book made the movie not as good, but I am going to watch the movie again, but I am so glad I read the book

Excellent!

Donna Tart does a brilliant job capturing the voice of Matty Ross- I thoroughly enjoyed this and listened twice!

Modern American Masterpiece

The captivating language and story telling paint a vivid picture for the reader. The narrator's voice is perfect for this book!

To think I might have missed this...an epiphany.

My college age granddaughter lives (and is born and raised) in Fort Smith, AR and when the new movie version of True Grit was coming out, I asked her if she was excited about it. She said "No, why?" and I said well the setting is in Fort Smith, haven't you ever watched the (very popular and often televised) John Wayne version, "from whence" he won his Academy Award and made the eye-patch comment? No, she never heard of it. Which was just beyond my belief. And she a literature major! So, I watched the new movie, which was advertised as more closely following the original novel by author Charles Portis. Very exciting movie, very enjoyable, a real time machine. So I am looking for a book to download for my next audible selection and it occurs to me to search for the novel by Charles Portis. Now I get to my point. I was frustrated with my granddaughter for spending her life in Ft. Smith and having no awareness of True Grit, and yet I had never read any Charles Portis novels, I had to be knocked on the head. And I am almost sure that if it weren't for the movie I would have missed the novel. I will give you a tip and it won't be a spoiler, particularly if you have already watched the movie(s). The narrator has attached an essay on the novel at the end of the reading. Consider "reading" the essay before you listen to the novel. The essay is worth the price of the novel and is inspiring in itself. There are still real people in this world, away from the cities and canned education and young people working so hard to fit precise molds defining what it means to be popular and accepted. Donna Tartt is a discovery as valuable as the novel itself, and as I said, I had to be knocked on the head to find the novel and her reading. I have a prejudice, which is that I felt the only way to experience literature is to actually read the tangible book as the author intended and people have been doing for a thousand years. However, fine narrators such as Donna Tartt enhance my reading.

Best Western

This is a masterful reading of a masterful novel. Donna Tartt brings these classic characters to life in a way I can't imagine anyone improving. I've read the book, I've seen both movie versions, and Donna Tartt's version read aloud is the best of all. She captures all of Portis' humor and irony, losing none of the disturbing elements which both movies gloss over. The brilliant mental flights of Rooster's memoirs are there in full for all to marvel at and wonder where Portis came up with such ideas. Undoubtedly influenced by Mark Twain, Portis may be the best American writer in that style since Mark Twain. True Grit is a fabulous road story told from the point of view of an irrepressible lead character. I envy you meeting Matty Ross for the first time. I'm going to listen to this again.