marianavolpe

Charles Portis' first novel, Norwood, is a rambling adventure story about a countryfied Arkansas ex-Marine, Norwood Pratt, who goes on a journey to NY to deliver two cars and find his Marine buddy who owes him money. Along the way he meets the world's second shortest midget, steals the college-educated chicken Joann and finds love on a bus with a girl named Rita Lee. It's the characters that really make this story work. There isn't much in the way of plot (and Portis intended it that way). There are interesting parallels with Portis' own life: Portis was a Marine in Korea and he lives in Arkansas. He married a midget woman and they had a chicken son (I just made that up--sorry Charles Portis). There are curious references to popular culture at the time (mid-sixties). Norwood tells Edmund (the midget) that when he goes to Hollywood he might find work in an Erskine Caldwell movie. This is Portis' way of telling an inside joke about midgets and their place in Southern Gothic fiction. Clearly, he was referencing God's Little Acre. In the story we see the early germination of some of Portis' great characters. It's almost as if these characters lived in his unconscious (or maybe conscious) mind as he travelled around with them. For example, Norwood Pratt is an early version of Ray Midge, the wifeless rambler from The Dog of the South. Grady Fring (the shifty stolen car dealer) from Norwood is a pre-cursor to Dr. Reo Symes, another shady character from The Dog of the South. Portis' work is all about characterization, and Norwood is no exception. This is a great novel, worthy of literary esteem, not because of its great storyline or beauty of language, but because of its unique voice and realistic characters. Pet chicken Joann predicts this novel will be Hollywood remade by the Coen brothers (ala True Grit remake fame). Just please keep Glen Campbell out of it.

2022-11-14 13:52