Jim's Reviews > Norwood

Around the time Charles Portis died in 2020, a writer called him the best little-known novelist in America. Now that I have read four of his five novels, of which Norwood is the first, I am inclined to agree. He is best known for True Grit, which was turned into a movie twice. A native of Arkansas, Portis wrote novels that were fun to read -- in the same way that Mark Twain's books were fun to read.

Norwood Pratt is owed a $70 debt by a fellow ex=Marine, so he decides to go to New York to collect the debt. On the way, he runs into a number of picaresque adventures, such as losing his fancy boots while riding a boxcar. He arrives in New York only to find that his friend left for Arkansas two days before. On the road back, he picks up a girlfriend, a circus midget, and a trained chicken.