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Summary: "What a story! What a trip!"
Review: "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" (p. 3), 28-year-old Ray Midge says in the opening sentences of Charles Portis's 1979 novel. Ray is a Southern Don Quixote, and DOG OF THE SOUTH follows him on a pointless quest from Arkansas through Mexico to Honduras in search of his wife Norma and his Ford Torino. Along the way, Portis's rather obtuse narrator encounters car troubles, tropical storms, and an oddball assortment of hippies and grifters, including Dr. Reo Symes, Ray's Sancho Panza.I discovered Charles Portis through Anne Lamott, who listed him among her favorite writers during her recent Boulder appearance. In a word, Portis's quirky novel is about restlessness and the American desire to make sense of everything. THE DOG OF THE SOUTH is a fascinating novel that challenges the notion that life is more unpredictable than fiction. G. Merritt
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Summary: Don't Keep This Dog Chained Up!
Review: "The Dog of the South" is a story about a man who tracks his runaway wife down to British Honduras through credit card receipts in order to retrieve his stolen car, credit card, and maybe even her. Brimming with memorable passages and unforgettable characters, it is a well worthwhile read. But what is Charles Portis trying to say with this novel? Perhaps that "the more things change, the more they stay the same?" Possibly "you can't teach an old dog new tricks"? Enriching, enjoyable, and extremely funny, "The Dog of the South" is a storyteller's story, a quick read, a side-slapping satire, and a good time.
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Summary: A comic gem!
Review: 'The Dog of the South' is a perfect novel. This sounds like hyperbole. It is short; there is very little in the way of plot; the characters do not develop in any way: yet the book is as engaging and entertaining as anything I have ever read. Before embarking on my second reading (just a fortnight after I finished my first) I planned to write down my favourite lines from the book. I gave up because I was transcribing almost the entire novel. No synopsis can do it justice. Ray Blount, Jr. has said of this book that 'no-one should die without reading it.' I'm with him all the way.
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Summary: Incredible novel impossible to get
Review: Because all of his novels, apart from True Grit, are out of print,Charles Portis is, unfortunately, becoming one of America's greatest storytellers that you never heard of. "The Dog of the South" is quite simply a comical masterpiece. Portis' ear for dialogue is amazing. There is not one thing wrong with this book, other than the fact that it's hard to find.
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Summary: FYI-Books by this author are described in Jan. 1998 Esquire.
Review: Books by Charles Portis are described in January's Esquire. (I have not read this book or any of his books, but am interested as a result of the article, which is highly complementary).
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Summary: Can't believe he pulls it off
Review: Charles Portis is almost invariably described as one of the best-kept secrets in American literature. As far as I can tell, his books sell almost exclusively to other writers, who gawp in amazement that he can pull off this sort of stuff. This one is about one seriously unaware do-nothing who chases after his wife, who has run off to Central America with a second seriously unaware do-nothing. On the way the first do-nothing picks up yet a third seriously unaware do-nothing. Everybody covers a lot of territory and doesn't do anything right, including acts of violence. Conversations amble, plans fizzle out, and there doesn't seem to be a single piece of technology more complicated than a match that works right. Nothing truly important happens, yet I was unable to stop reading, except for the times when I had to put the book down because I was laughing so hard. (Actually, that happened a lot.) I just don't get how Portis does it, but he does.
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Summary: Another Portis devotee weighs in
Review: I am encouraged to see the number of Portis' fans increasing. I teach creative writing and I never let a semester go by without reproducing (and acting out with a student in the class) a passage involving the main character and the Doc, to show the class how a Master creates humorous dialogue
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Summary: I guess I just don't get it.
Review: I certainly agree that Portis is a talented writer, but I just didn't find him all that funny. Perhaps I'm missing something, but I thought that the characters were strange enough, not amusing, just strange. I was frustrated by the characters and the world that they inhabited. I forced myself to finish the book and I was rewarded by the one funny line in the whole book, which comes at the very end of the novel.
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Summary: I guess I just don't get it.
Review: I certainly agree that Portis is a talented writer, but I just didn't find him all that funny. Perhaps I'm missing something, but I thought that the characters were strange enough, not amusing, just strange. I was frustrated by the characters and the world that they inhabited. I forced myself to finish the book and I was rewarded by the one funny line in the whole book, which comes at the very end of the novel.
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Summary: A Masterpiece
Review: I have never laughed so often or as loudly while reading a book as I did with Dog of the South. Comically absurd, almost surreal in its presentation of oddball events and characters, it is a joy to read. Don't let this one get away.
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