The Dog of the South - Portis, Charles Review & Synopsis

 Synopsis

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

Review

Charles Portis may be the sneakiest comedian in American letters, not to mention one of the funniest. And there's no better specimen of his double-edged art than The Dog of the South, which Overlook Press has recently rescued from a long, cruel, out-of-print limbo. As usual, the narrator is a down-at-the-heels Southerner with an eye for the homely detail and a mission to accomplish. What Ray Midge means to do is track down his significant other: "My wife Norma had run off with Guy Dupree and I was waiting around for the credit card billings to come in so I could see where they had gone." In another author's hands, this opening sentence might lead straight to a bloody, noir-ish denouement. Here it's merely the excuse for a meandering, semi-pointless quest, during which the fussbudget protagonist is assailed by tropical storms, grifters, hippies, car trouble, and even an assortment of airborne trash: "I had to keep the Buick speed below what I took to be about sixty because at that point the wind came up through the floor hole in such a way that the Heath wrappers were suspended behind my head in a noisy brown vortex."

 Hapless, rhetorically challenged Ray Midge would more than fulfill any novel's quota for comic creation. But Portis pairs him with another indelible nutter, Dr. Reo Symes. A font of dubious financial schemes, Symes attaches himself to Ray like a peevish, passive-aggressive Pancho Sanza, and his non-sequitur-studded riffs must be heard to be believed: 

<blockquote> I always tried to help Leon and you see the thanks I got. I hired him to drive for me right after his rat died. He was with the Murrell Brothers Shows at that time, exhibiting a fifty-pound rat from the sewers of Paris, France. Of course it didn't really weigh fifty pounds and it wasn't your true rat and it wasn't from Paris, France, either. It was some kind of animal from South America. Anyway, the thing died and I hired Leon to drive for me. I was selling birthstone rings and vibrating jowl straps from door to door and he would let me out at one end of the block and wait on me at the other end. </blockquote> The vibrating jowl straps are the kicker here, of course. But it's the overall futility of the enterprise that gives Symes his comic potency, and makes him Ray's natural companion in arms. Neither of these guys is going to accomplish anything: they're Beckett clowns in Sansabelt trousers, too enervated by the heat even to agonize. Still, you won't find a more delicious (or less reliable) narrator in contemporary fiction, and Charles Portis's genius for inventing all-American eccentrics is anything but futile. --James MarcusCharles Portis lives in Arkansas, where he was born and educated. He served in the Marine Corps during the Korean War, was the London bureau chief of the New York Herald-Tribune, and was a writer for The New Yorker.

The Dog of the South

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.

His wife, Norma, has run off with her ex-husband, taking Ray's cards, shotgun and car."

Escape Velocity

Collected here in Escape Velocity, edited by Jay Jennings, is his "miscellany" †“†“ journalism, short fiction, memoir, and even the play Delray's New Moon, published for the first time in this volume.  Portis covers topics as varied as the civil rights movement, road tripping in Baja, and Elvis' s visits to his aging mother for publications such as the New York Herald Tribune and Saturday Evening Post.  Fans of Portis’s droll Southern humor and quirky characters will be thrilled at this new addition to his library, and those not yet familiar with his work will find a great introduction to him here.  Also included are tributes by accomplished authors including Donna Tartt and Ron Rosenbaum.

Collected here in Escape Velocity, edited by Jay Jennings, is his &quot;miscellany&quot; †“†“ journalism, short fiction, memoir, and even the play Delray's New Moon, published for the first time in this volume.  Portis covers topics as ..."

Masters of Atlantis

Lamar Jimmerson, a veteran of World War I, decides to set up his own Gnomonic temple in Gary, Indiana, after receiving Gnomic teachings from a mysterious beggar

Back in print, Portis's brilliant &quot;white comedy&quot; is an unforgettable tale of secret societies, lost cities, and sacred texts--a cockeyed journey into an America of misfits and con men, oddballs and innocents."

Gringos

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.

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."

True Grit

There is no knowing what lies in a man's heart. On a trip to buy ponies, Frank Ross is killed by one of his own workers. Tom Chaney shoots him down in the street for a horse, $150 cash, and two Californian gold pieces. Ross's unusually mature and single-minded fourteen-year-old daughter Mattie travels to claim his body, and finds that the authorities are doing nothing to find Chaney. Then she hears of Rooster - a man, she's told, who has grit - and convinces him to join her in a quest into dark, dangerous Indian territory to hunt Chaney down and avenge her father's murder.

There is no knowing what lies in a man's heart."

Norwood

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.

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 ..."

The Masters of Atlantis

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.

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."

Texas Monthly

Since 1973, TEXAS MONTHLY has chronicled life in contemporary Texas, reporting on vital issues such as politics, the environment, industry, and education. As a leisure guide, TEXAS MONTHLY continues to be the indispensable authority on the Texas scene, covering music, the arts, travel, restaurants, museums, and cultural events with its insightful recommendations.

Grave and unrelenting, he has propelled his book, Dr . Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease, onto best-seller lists nationwide. The results of his study, which suggest that heart disease might be improved by a mixture of ..."

Arkansas/Arkansaw

What do Scott Joplin, John Grisham, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Maya Angelou, Brooks Robinson, Helen Gurley Brown, Johnny Cash, Alan Ladd, and Sonny Boy Williamson have in common? They’re all Arkansans. What do hillbillies, rednecks, slow trains, bare feet, moonshine, and double-wides have in common? For many in America these represent Arkansas more than any Arkansas success stories do. In 1931 H. L. Mencken described AR (not AK, folks) as the “apex of moronia.” While, in 1942 a Time magazine article said Arkansas had “developed a mass inferiority complex unique in American history.” Arkansas/Arkansaw is the first book to explain how Arkansas’s image began and how the popular culture stereotypes have been perpetuated and altered through succeeding generations. Brooks Blevins argues that the image has not always been a bad one. He discusses travel accounts, literature, radio programs, movies, and television shows that give a very positive image of the Natural State. From territorial accounts of the Creole inhabitants of the Mississippi River Valley to national derision of the state’s triple-wide governor’s mansion to Li’l Abner, the Beverly Hillbillies, and Slingblade, Blevins leads readers on an entertaining and insightful tour through more than two centuries of the idea of Arkansas. One discovers along the way how one state becomes simultaneously a punch line and a source of admiration for progressives and social critics alike.

 Portis , Charles . The Dog of the South . New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1979. . True Grit. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1968. Quinn, Rev. D. A. Heroes and Heroines ofMemphis, on Reminiscences ofthe Yellow Fever Epidemics ThatAfflicted the City ..."

Books I Have Loved

Some oldthinkers still read books . . . Carl Wells has been one of them. Some of those books have made a huge impression on him. Books I Have Loved gives us Wells' response to 46 books (by 41 authors) encountered through a longish life mostly spent (misspent?) reading books. His only regret is that he didn't spend more time reading.

But there was a cost to her brave quest, and Mattie, Charles Portis , and Col. ... Charles Portis has given us a book that causes us to wrestle with the ways of God. ... Select bibliography Portis , Charles . e Dog of the South (1979)."

The New Western

American moviegoers have long turned to the Hollywood Western for reassurance in times of crisis. During the genre's heyday, the films of John Ford, Howard Hawks and Henry Hathaway reflected a grand patriotism that resonated with audiences at the end of World War II. The tried-and-true Western was questioned by Ford and George Stevens during the Cold War, and in the 1960s directors like Sam Peckinpah and George Roy Hill retooled the genre as a commentary on American ethics during the Vietnam War. Between the mid-1970s and early 1990s, the Western faded from view--until the Gulf War, when Kevin Costner's Dances with Wolves (1990) and Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven (1992) brought it back, with moral complexities. Since 9/11, the Western has seen a resurgence, blending its patriotic narrative with criticism of America's place in the global community. Exploring such films as True Grit (2010) and Brokeback Mountain (2005), along with television series like Deadwood and Firefly, this collection of new essays explores how the Western today captures the dichotomy of our times and remains important to the American psyche.

 Portis , Escape Velocity 317–36. Print. Portis , Charles . The Dog of the South . 1979. New York: Overlook, 1999. Print. _____. Escape Velocity: A Charles Portis Miscellany. Ed. Jay Jennings. Little Rock: Butler Center Books, 2012. Print."

The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture

Offering a comprehensive view of the South's literary landscape, past and present, this volume of The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture celebrates the region's ever-flourishing literary culture and recognizes the ongoing evolution of the southern literary canon. As new writers draw upon and reshape previous traditions, southern literature has broadened and deepened its connections not just to the American literary mainstream but also to world literatures--a development thoughtfully explored in the essays here. Greatly expanding the content of the literature section in the original Encyclopedia, this volume includes 31 thematic essays addressing major genres of literature; theoretical categories, such as regionalism, the southern gothic, and agrarianism; and themes in southern writing, such as food, religion, and sexuality. Most striking is the fivefold increase in the number of biographical entries, which introduce southern novelists, playwrights, poets, and critics. Special attention is given to contemporary writers and other individuals who have not been widely covered in previous scholarship.

 Charles Portis grew up in small towns in southern Arkansas and got his high school education at Hamburg. From 1952 to 1955 he was in the U.S. Marine Corps and served in the Korean War. After being discharged, he studied journalism at ..."

Eddie and the Cruisers

The classic novel that gave rise to a movie franchise. “A warm, entertaining, and highly evocative story of youth, music, and growing up in the 1950s.” —The Philadelphia Inquirer Eddie and his Jersey-bred band, The Parkway Cruisers, were going places. With an album and a few minor hits to their credit the future seemed bright until Eddie died in a fiery car crash. Twenty years later a British rock band turns their old songs into monumental fresh hits. With this comes a surge of interest in the surviving Cruisers and in a rumored cache of tapes that Eddie made before he died. That’s when the killing starts . . . “An excellently crafted book. The dialogue is sharp, the book is packed with exquisite description and a surprise ending.” —Sunday Journal and Star “Eddie and the Cruisers seems at first glance to be only a smartly written novel about nostalgia for the music of the late 1950s. It quickly proves, however, to be a remarkably good suspense story, full of vivid characters and some hilarious dialogue.” —St. Louis Post-Dispatch “Sparkling dialogue, wonderful characterizations and a plot which dazzles.” —Enterprise Sun “[A] good mix of everyday blues with old-time bebop.” —Booklist

 CHARLES PORTIS THE DOG OF THE SOUTH The Dog of the South 978-1-58567-931-7 CHARLES PORT TRUE GRIT True Grit 978-1-58567-938-6 &quot; Charles Portis is the greatest writer you've never head of . ” —The Boston Herald The Overlook Press ..."

BIG Arkansas Reproducible Activity Book

The Big Arkansas Activity Book! 100+ activities, from Kindergarten-easy to Fourth/Fifth-challenging! This big activity book has a wide range of reproducible activities including coloring, dot-to-dot, mazes, matching, word search, and many other creative activities that will entice any student to learn more about Arkansas. Activities touch on history, geography, people, places, fictional characters, animals, holidays, festivals, legends, lore, and more.

Other books by Charles Portis are Norwood, Dog of the South , and Masters of Atlantis. Read each sentence, and decide if it is FACT or FICTION. Write your answers on the lines provided. 1. Charles Portis ' best-known novel is probably ..."

Updating the Literary West

Given in honor of District Governor Hugh Summers and Mrs. Ahnise Summers by the Rotary Club of Aggieland with matching support from the Sara and John H. Lindsey '44 Fund, Texas A & M University Press, 2004.

Bob J. Frye Charles Portis R eaders of Charles Portis need to pack their bags , for he invariably takes them on the road ... Ray Midge's observa- tion in The Dog of the South characterizes Portis ' typical plot : &quot; A lot of people leave ..."

Encyclopedia of the American Novel

Praise for the print edition:" ... no other reference work on American fiction brings together such an array of authors and texts as this.

1969– ) American novelist Susan Choi hasall the auguries of an auspicious career. Her first novel , The Foreign Student , won the American Book Award. Although, aswith many AsianAmerican writers, Choi's fiction focuses onthe experiencesof ..."

100 One-Night Reads

Readers everywhere know that nothing soothes the spirit like sinking into a really good book. If you're one of that happy band, you'll quickly recognize the authors of this inspired reading guide as kindred spirits. Here David and John Major have chosen one hundred books that can each be delightfully consumed in one quiet evening. Covering categories from fantasy to fiction, history to humor, mystery to memoir, this addictive volume features books to match all your moods—by both celebrated writers and gifted unknowns, including: • Russell Baker • Willa Cather • Raymond Chandler • F. Scott Fitzgerald • Graham Greene • Edith Hamilton • Dashiell Hammett • Helene Hanff • Ernest Hemingway • Patricia Highsmith • Shirley Jackson • Henry James • W. Somerset Maugham • Mary McCarthy • Walter Mosley • Vladimir Nabokov • Patrick O'Brian • Barbara Pym • Phillip Roth • Vikram Seth • Isaac Bashevis Singer • C. P. Snow • Dylan Thomas • Evelyn Waugh • Edith Wharton • Laura Ingalls Wilder • Virginia Woolf Each selection contains an entertaining discussion of what makes the book special, from an adventurous writing style to a unique sense of humor. The Majors also share insights about the authors and literary anecdotes, as well as recommend other gems on a similar subject or by the same author. A literary companion to relish and refer to again and again, 100 One-Night Reads is a masterpiece in its own right!

There has been a revival of interest in the work of Charles Portis in recent years. His other novels— The Dog of the South , Norwood, Gringns, and Masters of /\\tlantis—are now back in print, and appreciated for the same qualities of zany ..."

Southern Writers

This new edition of Southern Writers assumes its distinguished predecessor's place as the essential reference on literary artists of the American South. Broadly expanded and thoroughly revised, it boasts 604 entries-nearly double the earlier edition's-written by 264 scholars. For every figure major and minor, from the venerable and canonical to the fresh and innovative, a biographical sketch and chronological list of published works provide comprehensive, concise, up-to-date information. Here in one convenient source are the South's novelists and short story writers, poets and dramatists, memoirists and essayists, journalists, scholars, and biographers from the colonial period to the twenty-first century. What constitutes a "southern writer" is always a matter for debate. Editors Joseph M. Flora and Amber Vogel have used a generous definition that turns on having a significant connection to the region, in either a personal or literary sense. New to this volume are younger writers who have emerged in the quarter century since the dictionary's original publication, as well as older talents previously unknown or unacknowledged. For almost every writer found in the previous edition, a new biography has been commissioned. Drawn from the very best minds on southern literature and covering the full spectrum of its practitioners, Southern Writers is an indispensable reference book for anyone intrigued by the subject.

—Farrell O'Gorman CHARLES PORTIS (1933–). Charles (McColl) Portis was born on December 28, 1933, to Samuel and Alice Waddell Portis in El Dorado, Ark. He pulled a hitch in the U.S. Marine Corps (1952–55) before attending the University ..."

Arkansas in Modern America, 1930–1999

This elegantly written narrative traces Arkansas's evolution from a primarily rural society in the early 1900s to its expanding manufacturing economy and its growing prosperity and parity with the rest of the nation. Ben Johnson explores the influence of federal-state relations, beginning with the New Deal programs of President Franklin Roosevelt and continuing through the administrations of native son Bill Clinton. With particular sensitivity, he examines organized labor in the timber industry and in row crop agriculture; school desegregation, "white flight," and the private academy movement in the delta region; the growth of Wal-Mart and the poultry industry in the northwest section of the state; and the expansion of outdoor recreation and tourism as lakes were constructed and game populations rejuvenated. This book is particularly impressive for the breadth of its scope. Johnson offers detailed information on women, music and literature, organized religion, environmental trends, and other important cultural influences. Third in the popular Histories of Arkansas series, Arkansas in Modern America extends the narrative into the contemporary era with a format aimed at students and general readers. This important book will set the standard, for years to come, for analysis and interpretation of Arkansas's place in the twentieth century.

 Portis , Charles , 221—22, 224; Norwood by, 221; Dog of the South by, 221; Masters of Atlantis by, 222; Gringos by, 222; True Grit by, 222 Possum Trot, 35 Potlach Corporation, 182 poultry contract growers, 192—93 Poultry Federation, ..."

Kiplinger's Personal Finance

The most trustworthy source of information available today on savings and investments, taxes, money management, home ownership and many other personal finance topics.

The key is that you never gain possession of the money. As far as the law is concerned, you can move your IRA money around and open and close accounts at will using this method. However, charges imposed by plan sponsors, such as fees to ..."

Then We Came to the End

Winner of the Hemingway Foundation / PEN Award, this debut novel is "as funny as The Office, as sad as an abandoned stapler . . . that rare comedy that feels blisteringly urgent." (TIME) No one knows us in quite the same way as the men and women who sit beside us in department meetings and crowd the office refrigerator with their labeled yogurts. Every office is a family of sorts, and the Chicago ad agency depicted in Joshua Ferris's exuberantly acclaimed first novel is family at its best and worst, coping with a business downturn in the time-honored way: through gossip, elaborate pranks, and increasingly frequent coffee breaks. With a demon's eye for the details that make life worth noticing, Joshua Ferris tells an emotionally true and funny story about survival in life's strangest environment—the one we pretend is normal five days a week. One of the Best Books of the Year Boston Globe * Christian Science Monitor * New York Magazine * New York Times Book Review * St. Louis Post-Dispatch * Time magazine * Salon

... Joan Didion The Complete Works by Nathanael West The Dog of the South by Charles Portis The Collected Stories by Amy Hempel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald The Complete Stories by Anton Chekhov Bleak House by Charles Dickens ..."

Garner's Quotations

A selection of favorite quotes that the celebrated literary critic has collected over the decades. From Dwight Garner, the New York Times book critic, comes a rollicking, irreverent, scabrous, amazingly alive selection of unforgettable moments from forty years of wide and deep reading. Garner’s Quotations is like no commonplace book you’ll ever read. If you’ve ever wondered what’s really going on in the world of letters today, this book will make you sit up and take notice. Unputdownable!

— Charles Portis , The Dog of the South Critical essays are really where it's at. —Jim Morrison I can't read any more of this Rich Critical Prose, he growled, broke wind, and scratched himself & left that fragrant area."