Libraries near you: WorldCat. Audio CD in English - Unabridged edition. Audio Cassette in English - Unabridged edition. Norwood , Overlook Press. Norwood June , Buccaneer Books. Norwood , Vintage Books. Norwood , Johnathan Cape. Places Texas. Classifications Library of Congress PZ4.
P No, PS O No. The Physical Object Pagination p. I read this book in three sittings, the longest while getting some shading work done a large side piece. The three things that stand out is the specificity of the language, the dryness of the humor, and the protagonist's heroic transformation in spite of making bad decisions at every turn.
Norwood conducts himself with propriety, which, sad to say, makes him something of a throwback, yet one would be hard-pressed to call him good natured.
In life, I run from these kinds of people: guided by othe I read this book in three sittings, the longest while getting some shading work done a large side piece. In life, I run from these kinds of people: guided by other people's perceptions of the right thing to do, but it's this rightness that makes the story taut.
A looser moral register and the story falls apart. I like characters that are unnecessarily formal to the point of fussiness. These kinds of characters present countless opportunities for humor. This is where Charles Portis is a master. There were places where I chuckled out loud, which means something, I think, when someone is jabbing a needle in you.
There's a long conversation toward the end where Norwood tactfully recounts his adventures on the road from Texas to New York City and back again. However, his clumsy attempts at summarizing make the trip seem even stranger than it was, which his friend pounces on.
We've all known people like this, who make us see the humor in our situations when we can't. The humor is lost on poor Norwood, but not on the reader. View all 5 comments. Jun 21, Pete rated it it was amazing. The bread man began to rumble with quiet laughter. In a minute or two his face clouded with a darker memory. When one of them comes on I get up and go get me a sack of corn or something.
The trouble was, two of the sacks had broken. After he caught his breath he dragged them over and pushed them out. The second one snagged on the bad door and hung there for a moment blowing flour up in his face. Then he began flinging sacks out, good ones, till he got a cramp in his neck. Norwood stared back. The man looked up at the light fixture on the ceiling to calculate its dimensions and efficiency.
There were no girls on the train, no women at all, only these clean men. They bathed every day, every morning. He caught another one looking at him down the way. She had black hair piled up high and dark tiger eyes.
She came back and gave the counter a quick wipe with a blue sponge that had one cornflake riding on the stern.
She looked at the dime and nickel in his hand. There was a man in a Mr. Peanut outfit in front of the Planters place but he was not giving out sample nuts, he was just walking back and forth. The Mr. Peanut casing looked hot. It looked thick enough to give protection against small arms fire. I just started this morning.
At the shop. I work at the post office at night. You take it easy. You too. Fatigue and unhappiness were in their faces, as of young men whose shorts are bunching up. He has little pig eyes that glitter and burn with malice. Sep 26, Karen rated it really liked it Shelves: , , Another comic highlight.
Portis is wonderful, inimitable. He can tell a story about nothing like no one else I know. George Saunders has inherited some of this, but Saunders can be a little more brittle and mannered, his characters and situations more surreal. Portis is interested in all the little details of ordinary, not-always-so-bright folks struggling with their drives and limitations, their idees fixes and confusion about the world. Like many of his other books True Grit, Dog of the South , this is a story about a quest: Norwood's quest to find the man who owes him seventy dollars.
That seventy dollars drives the story all the way to New York and back, through a cast of Portis's usual vivid, hilarious characters. This one is a little slighter than Dog of the South, and a little lighter. That's okay; it's a great novel with Portis's stamp all over it.
View 1 comment. Jun 03, Chrystal rated it it was amazing Shelves: favorites , re-reads. Charles Portis is one of the best writers I never heard of until just a few years ago. His crazy road trip novels always put me into a good mood. Flip to any page of this, or any of his novels, and you will get a good chuckle going. His snappy dialogue bounces off the page, carrying the action along with it just as fast as you please. If I lingered here to describe this hilarious caper from Texas to New York and back, and the nutty characters Norwood meets along the way, including a chicken libe Charles Portis is one of the best writers I never heard of until just a few years ago.
If I lingered here to describe this hilarious caper from Texas to New York and back, and the nutty characters Norwood meets along the way, including a chicken liberated from a penny arcade, it would just spoil the fun. A truly American novel not to be missed.
Feb 19, Bfisher rated it it was amazing Shelves: literature. If character development is your thing, this book will not do for you. By the end of the book, I was quite certain that Norwood Pratt will be essentially unchanged at I suspect that is one of the main points of the book. This is a great road story about a Texarkanan Odysseus. Some of the prose is memorable: " Highway 82 in the oil fields and cotton patches between Stamps, Arkansas, and Hooks, Texas.
There was something Mr. Pratt dearly loved a If character development is your thing, this book will not do for you. Pratt dearly loved about that section of interstate concrete.
They clung to its banks like river rats. Jul 10, Erika rated it it was amazing. This book is so much fun : Norwood, who wants to be a singer, accepts a task to take two cars to NY and then come back to Texas.
During the trip, he meets a series of memorable characters. Sep 05, Corey rated it really liked it. Funnier than throwing a hardboiled egg into an electric fan, this reads like the bastard son of Flannery O'Connor and John Fergus Ryan. View all 8 comments. Jan 18, Jocelyn Mel rated it it was amazing Shelves: contemporary-fiction.
These people When I read books like this I remember how wonderful the human race really is. Amusing, quirky, original, hilarious. You know, I'm not quite sure what to make of Norwood, either the book or the main character. I liked it - and I liked him - and I laughed out loud a few times while reading it. Maybe that's the point.
Maybe the point is that there is no point. After reading such a magically cohesive and brilliant book as True Grit earlier this year, I was interested in what else Charles Portis had to offer.
Norwood seemed to be the one folks were gravitating toward most, so I selected this from Audible and launch You know, I'm not quite sure what to make of Norwood, either the book or the main character. Norwood seemed to be the one folks were gravitating toward most, so I selected this from Audible and launched in. I think Portis' best trick in the book is to present a whole wealth of unlikable characters and then make you like them. Norwood, who isn't entirely bright and who isn't entirely kind, but is at least a little of both, gets hoodwinked in the first few pages by the Kredit King, who basically tricks Norwood into running stolen cars for him.
Norwood doesn't know they're stolen until midway through his trip. Pat Crow, who died in , was an editor at The New Yorker. Portis was an American author known for this novel as well as the Western True Grit.
Published by Simon and Schuster, New York, Used - Hardcover Condition: Very Good. Condition: Very Good. First printing 8vo, hardcover, blue cloth. Vg condition in vg dj. Very slight nicking to head and heel of dust jacket spine; dj now in a removable mylar protector. Previous owner's intaglio name stamp to front and rear endpapers. Faint yellow stain to rear endpaper; small shallow moisture mark to rear corner, top edge of textblock.
Covers and contents clean, unworn, no marking or writing. Binding square and tight. Uncommon first printing so stated of author's first book. Used - Hardcover Condition: Near Fine. Condition: Near Fine. Bound in very bright teal blue cloth. Stated first printing. There are just a few small stains to a few interior pages.
The jacket is bright, price clipped, two short creases to front flap. Just a couple of very short tears and light edgewear. Visit store Visit store. See other items See other items. Item Information Condition:. Sign in to check out Check out as guest.
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