The Dog of the South: Library Edition

Rating:
Summary: It's About Time!
Review: It's great to see Portis' finest novel getting a little attention at last. Pity it took everyone 20 years to notice that Dog of the South is a masterpiece. Here are the Seventies as they were lived outside Hollywood:an American "Era of Stagnation," a stagnant pond in which tiny creatures like Ray Midge, protagonist of this novel, move in little circles. Ray is a bore, a weapons-nerd and military-history pedant, a tiresome "selfish little fox" in the words of his dancing ex-mother-in-law and "an effete yeoman" in his own estimation. But he is also the voice to which Portis assigns some of the funniest and most beautiful sentences ever written. Ray's failed attempt to live out an heroic tale of vengeance is the story, and it's a great story; but it's Portis' extraordinary prose that will stay with you long after you finish this novel. My brothers and I, who had read this novel dozens of times, used to conduct whole conversations consisting of memorized sentences from the novel. It's that good.

Rating:
Summary: Good book, but masterpiece?
Review: Oh give me a break. Funny the novel is, but does it ever come together? In fact, is there anything at all under the parade of surface oddities and precisely phrased collectable quirks? Does watch out for the FLORR, despite its reprise, amount to anything? Just because an author is rescued from oblivion doesn't mean he's an unrecognized genius. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and Portis deserves to be perenially in print--he's head and shoulders above the bozo crowd--but masterpiece? I'll be the first to say I'm missing something if valid edification is proffered. To me the book is all style and on a par with, say, Terry Southern. The style is in fact superior to Southern but you also often knew at just what Southern had leveled his dart gun. For content this doesn't quite beat The Magic Christian.

Rating:
Summary: Good book, but masterpiece?
Review: Oh give me a break. Funny the novel is, but does it ever come together? In fact, is there anything at all under the parade of surface oddities and precisely phrased collectable quirks? Does watch out for the FLORR, despite its reprise, amount to anything? Just because an author is rescued from oblivion doesn't mean he's an unrecognized genius. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and Portis deserves to be perenially in print--he's head and shoulders above the bozo crowd--but masterpiece? I'll be the first to say I'm missing something if valid edification is proffered. To me the book is all style and on a par with, say, Terry Southern. The style is in fact superior to Southern but you also often knew at just what Southern had leveled his dart gun. For content this doesn't quite beat The Magic Christian.

Rating:
Summary: One of the funniest books I have ever read.
Review: Portis is perhaps the most underrated comic novelists of our time. When you finish reading Dog of the South, get Norwood and Gringos, two other hilarious and gracefully written books. Please tell Mr Portis to write another novel--he hasn't for some time, and I need a Portis refill round about now.

Rating:
Summary: An American Original
Review: The Dog of the South is a rarity well worth seeking out.Charles Portis is one witty guy--he had me laughing out loud every couple pages.

Rating:
Summary: Endlessly quotable
Review: The Dog of the South is simply one of the funniest and best novels ever written, a book about nothing - which is to say, about everything.


Rating:
Summary: Read it! Then read everything else he's done.
Review: The Dog of the South is, I sometimes think, the most perfect book of our age. There is something funny on every page--some bit of perfection in every paragraph. I can't recommend it enough to anyone who appreciates flawless (well, it is) prose, in a sublimely twisted form.

Rating:
Summary: An Odyssey of Dunces
Review: The humor in this novel is so dry you do not realize how funny a sentence is until you have already moved on to the next sentence, then the humor comes to you and you absolutely must go back and re-read the previous passage.

The Dog of the South is full of sly, self-deprecating Southern humor, a humor that could offend were it not wielded in a masterful way. What is this novel about? Gosh, who knows, but I swear I see The Odyssey, The Heart of Darkness, and A Confederacy of Dunces all wound together into a tale of silly nonsequiturs that make potent social commentaries akin to Vonnegut.

An enjoyable read.


Rating:
Summary: Good stuff
Review: The language is simple, and the main character loves guns, trucks and the history of the Civil War. But The Dog of the South is also full of depth, good humor and compassion. Read it, and you're hooked on Portis for life.

Rating:
Summary: Good stuff
Review: The language is simple, and the main character loves guns, trucks and the history of the Civil War. But The Dog of the South is also full of depth, good humor and compassion. Read it, and you're hooked on Portis for life.