This came as a recommendation. I had also seen the John Wayne film - I have since seen the re-make. It opens as a revelation; the blurb suggests echoes of Mark Twain, but I was reminded of Harper Lee - To Kill a Mockingbird. The heroine is young, fresh, direct and innocent. She has a lively style to match - plenty of small-town wisdoms and original political/religious comment. The ending is disappointing, however. Having spent half the book preparing Mattie Ross, a fourteen year old girl, for her journey into Indian territory with Rooster Cogburn - a True Grit Deputy Marshall, Portis seems to tire of the story. We rush through the details then - all the killings and survivals - at a helter skelter pace, and lose most of the slow adventure of the build-up. I finished it nonetheless, and would recommend the book - if only for the first hundred pages.
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