Best Selling Books by Charles Portis

“[Charles Portis] understood, and conveyed, the grain of America, in ways that may prove valuable in future to historians trying to understand what was decent about us as a nation.” --Donna Tartt, New York Times Book Review Ray Midge is waiting for his credit card bill to arrive. His wife, Norma, has run off with her ex-husband, taking Ray's cards, shotgun and car. But from the receipts, Ray can track where they've gone. He takes off after them, as does an irritatingly tenacious bail bondsman, both following the romantic couple's spending as far as Mexico. There Ray meets Dr Reo Symes, the seemingly down-on-his-luck and rather eccentric owner of a beaten up and broken down bus, who needs a ride to Belize. The further they drive, in a car held together by coat-hangers and excesses of oil, the wilder their journey gets. But they're not going to give up easily.

For those who care about literature or simply love a good laugh (or both), Charles Portis has long been one of America’s most admired novelists. His 1968 novel True Grit is fixed in the contemporary canon, and four more have been hailed as comic masterpieces. Now, for the first time, his other writings—journalism, travel stories, short fiction, memoir, and even a play—have been brought together in Escape Velocity: A Charles Portis Miscellany, his first new book in more than twenty years. All the familiar Portis elements are here: picaresque adventures, deadpan humor, an expert eye for detail and keen ear for the spoken word, and encounters with oddball characters both real and imagined. The collection encompasses the breadth of his fifty-year writing career, from his gripping reportage of the civil rights movement for the New York Herald Tribune to a comic short story about the demise of journalism in the twenty-first century. New to even the most ardent fan is his three-act play, Delray’s New Moon, performed onstage in 1996 and published here for the first time. Whether this is your first encounter with the world of Portis or a long-awaited return to it, you’ll agree with critic Ron Rosenbaum—whose essay appears here alongside tributes by other writers—that Portis “will come to be regarded as the author of classics on the order of a twentieth-century Mark Twain, a writer who captures the soul of America.”

Sent on a mission to New York he gets involved in a wild journey that takes him in and out of stolen cars, freight trains, and buses. By the time he returns home to Texas, Norwood has met his true love, Rita Lee, on a bus; befriended the second shortest midget in show business and “the world's smallest perfect fat man†?; and helped Joann “the chicken with a college education,†? realize her true potential in life. As with all Portis’ fiction, the tone is cool, sympathetic, and funny.

Charles Portis’s fourth novel—a truly brilliant, wonderfully bizarre novel by one of our great American novelists. Jimmy Burns is an expatriate American living in Mexico who has an uncommonly astute eye for the absurd little details that comprise your average American. For a time, Jimmy spent his days unearthing pre-Colombian artifacts. Now he makes a living doing small trucking jobs and helping out with the occasional missing person situation—whatever it takes to remain “the very picture of an American idler in Mexico, right down to the grass-green golfing trousers.” But when Jimmy’s laid-back lifestyle is seriously imposed upon by a ninety-pound stalker called Louise, a sudden wave of “hippies” (led by a murderous ex-con guru) in search of psychic happenings, and a group of archaeologists who are unearthing (illegally) Mayan tombs, his simple South-of-the-Border existence faces a clear and present danger.

Lamar Jimmerson is the leader of the Gnomon Society, the international fraternal order dedicated to preserving the arcane wisdom of the lost city of Atlantis. Stationed in France in 1917, Jimmerson comes across a little book crammed with Atlantean puzzles, Egyptian riddles, and extended alchemical metaphors. It's the Codex Pappus - the sacred Gnomon text. Soon he is basking in the lore of lost Atlantis, convinced that his mission on earth is to administer to and extend the ranks of the noble brotherhood.

Sono gli anni Settanta dell'Ottocento quando la giovane Mattie Ross - l'inconfondibile voce narrante di questa storia, adorabile nella sua schiettezza - lascia a casa la madre e i fratelli in lacrime per avventurarsi alla ricerca di Tom Chaney, l'uomo a cui suo padre aveva dato lavoro e che l'ha ammazzato, unendosi poi a una banda di fuorilegge e fuggendo nel Territorio Indiano. Mattie è decisa a tutto pur di portare a termine la sua vendetta, ma per farlo è costretta a muoversi in un mondo ostile, ad affrontare uomini violenti, prepotenti, alcolizzati. Uomini come Reuben Cogburn, detto "Il Grinta", «un tipo duro e spietato, uno che non sa cos'è la paura» e che, assieme al ranger texano LaBoeuf, anch'egli sulle tracce di Chaney, diventerà suo compagno e alleato in una caccia all'uomo diventata leggendaria. Pubblicato nel 1968 e subito assurto allo status di classico accanto a libri come Le avventure di Huckleberry Finn e Il mago di Oz, Il Grinta riscrive le regole del genere western, offrendo ai lettori la voce sincera e spesso involontariamente umoristica di una protagonista indimenticabile, che a distanza di decenni dai fatti narrati getta il suo sguardo privo di illusioni sull'America della Frontiera e sui suoi miti.

Mattie Ross, de catorce años, se adentra en el Territorio Indio para buscar al criminal que mató a su padre y vengar su muerte. Dicen que no se puede saber qué anida en el corazón de un hombre. En un viaje para comprar caballos, Frank Ross es asesinado por uno de sus trabajadores por una montura, ciento cincuenta dólares y dos piezas de oro. Con catorce años, Mattie, la hija de Ross, está dispuesta a vengar una muerte que ha quedado impune y a reclamar el cuerpo de su padre. Recurrirá al comisario más «implacable y cruel» de Arkansas, el tuerto Rooster Cogburn. Se adentrará en el Territorio Indio si es necesario. Luchará contra cualquier forajido. Porque Mattie quiere demostrar que el suyo es un corazón noble. Y que su valor es de ley. Valor de ley es un clásico americano ambientado en el Oeste, una novela amada por generaciones de lectores desde su publicación en 1968 y la fuente de inspiración de dos películas formidables. Un libro tan delicioso como aterrador sobre la crueldad, la venganza y la ineludible entrada a la vida adulta. Y un ejemplo de coraje y vitalidad indestructible, como su conmovedora protagonista. Opinión: « Valor de ley es la mejor novela con que me topado en mucho tiempo. ¿Qué libro me ha proporcionado mayor placer en los últimos cinco años? ¿O en los últimos veinte? Pues no sé. ¡Vaya escritor!» Roald DAhl

Fourteen-year-old Mattie Ross' father was shot and killed. Told through her eyes, True Grit is the story of how she and hard-drinking Marshal Rooster Cogburn set out to find and prosecute his murderer. An epic and a legend.--Washington Post.

Un flingue planqué au fond de sa glacière, Ray Midge, un drôle d'oiseau de vingt-six ans, quitte son Arkansas et part en quête de ce qu'il a perdu : sa femme, ses cartes de crédit, sa Ford Torino et sa tranquillité d'esprit. Cap au Sud, droit sur l'Amérique centrale ; le double des récépissés de CB fournie par sa banque retraçant l'itinéraire de la tourterelle en fuite - et de son odieux ravisseur, l'indécrottable Guy Dupree. Entre escrocs rêveurs, hippies réactionnaires, évangélistes et témoins de Dieu-sait-quoi en tous genres, l'irréductible gringo ramassera sur sa route le docteur Reo Symes : épave échouée au fond d'un parc à roulottes mexicain, praticien radié, vétéran revenu de tout dont le sens des affaires illégales et la moralité oblique semblent n'avoir aucune limite. Sous les tropiques, les retrouvailles conjugales se précisent, un fameux duel se prépare à l'ombre des ruines mayas : le vent se lève, un ouragan se profile au Belize... De quoi relever encore la verve ébouriffante et méchamment drôle de Charles "Buddy" Portis et réjouir les amateurs de Hunter S Thompson, Jim Dodge, James Crumley, Elmore Leonard...

Guy Dupree se ha saltado la condicional y se ha largado con la mujer, el fusil, la American Express y el Ford Torino de Ray Midge. A cambio, le ha dejado un Buick Special V-6 del 63 que se cae a trozos, además de la cornamenta y la cara de imbécil. A Midge no le gusta salir, ni bailar, ni confraternizar con la gente. Tiene veintiséis años, vive de papá y está más que orgulloso de su colección de armas y su biblioteca de historia militar. Cuando le llegan las facturas de la tarjeta de crédito, localiza a los tortolitos. Ahora no le va a quedar más remedio que mover el culo.