The Dog of the South

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Knopf, 1979 - Fiction - 245 pages

"[Charles Portis] understood, and conveyed, the grain of America, in ways that may prove valuable in future to historians trying to understand what was decent about us as a nation." --Donna Tartt, New York Times Book Review

Ray Midge is waiting for his credit card bill to arrive. 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.

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About the author (1979)

Charles Portis lives in Arkansas, where he was born (1933) and educated. Portis served as a reporter for the New York Herald-Tribune and was also its London bureau chief. His first novel, Norwood, was published in 1966. His other novels are True Grit, The Dog of the South, Masters of Atlantis, and Gringos. True Grit has been made into a movie two times, once in 1969 with John Wayne (who won his only academy award by playing the main character of Rooster Cogburn), and a second time in 2010 with Jeff Bridges as the main character. Mr. Bridges was nominated for the Rooster Cogburn role, but did not win. Charles Portis died on February 17, 2020 in Little Rock, Arkansas at age 86. He had been under hospice care for two years.

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