By Charles Portis

Rating: 4/5

Three Word Summary: Girl’s western redemption

What is grit? Resilience. Perseverance. Hardness. Not always a positive character trait.

The subject of grit and who possesses it is a central theme of this classic western novel that details the tale of 14-year-old Mattie Ross and the redemption of her father’s death at the hands of outlaw Tom Chaney.

To hunt Chaney down in Native American territory, Mattie hires the surly, one-eyed U.S. Marshall ‘Rooster’ Cogburn, because he is said to have grit. That is true, if grit is abrasiveness and stubbornness. So too is Cogburn brave and true — true to his word that he will bring Chaney to justice.

All of these characteristics are shared by Mattie, too, so she could be said to have a grit of her own. Despite being a young girl, she rides into the wilderness with two rugged law men and ruthlessly hunts down her father’s killer.

The plot is simple and the action takes some time to build to a climax. The real treasure of the American classic is the characterization and the relationship that develops between Mattie and Rooster.

Although Mattie is young in the story, the story is actually told from her perspective as an old woman with a dry humor. She addresses hangings and murder with the same blase tone as the evening meal.

Rooster has a similar tone of voice and shares more traits with Mattie than either of them realize.

Westerns are rarely the most suspenseful or exciting books. Their tales are lengthy and slowly paced, in the same way life in west was. But the characters in many of these stories share a universal trait — grit.

And True Grit is the definitive work on what this characteristic looks like from a number of perspectives.