Classic Challenge: True Grit

True Grit was not only a author that was new to me, but pretty much a genre that was new to me. I can't think of another western I've read - ever. My exposure to the idea of a western is limited to the a handful of old John Wayne movies I've seen. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say the portions of those movies I've seen because my dad was watching them and I was around as a kid. I also shelved a lot of westerns when I was a young teen and and volunteered at our local library. But actually read one, nope.

While I can't say that this has turned me into a western novel lover, it was pretty good. I found I had to force myself to pick it up but once I did, I read quite a bit of it before I put it down again. I'm guessing that having a young girl as the main character/narrator is not common in the world of westerns but I liked Mattie and her perspective. I also liked how multi-faceted some of the other characters were. This wasn't necessarily a book with two horse riders, one where a black hat and one a white. But that doesn't mean that it was too grey or that you didn't have people to root for either. While listening to the Close Reads podcast episodes on this book, I realized I didn't catch a lot of the humor at first but I think I started to by the end. And I enjoyed learning a bit more about how the western fits into the history and evolution of American literature.

My biggest issue was lack of caring. The whole story is Mattie's quest to get justice for the death of her father. She recruited some help to track down her father's killer and then its her journey and the lengths that she goes to make that happen. I really wanted to care about that because Mattie did, but in the end, I just wasn't invested.

 Oh, oh, I just realized I was mistaken above. Craig kinda forced me to watch Lonesome Dove miniseries with him (in that, we lived in a teeny-tiny apartment so unless I wanted to hide in the bathroom the whole time, I got to experience it in all its western glory) but I kept making jokes about how everyone was dying (because, seriously, everyone dies!) and he got annoyed. So apathy was a big problem for me with that western too. I admire the Western code of ethics and firm ideals of justice, I just don't have those specific ideals myself and it makes it hard for me to really immerse myself in the story the way I enjoy doing in a book. That's really what I love about books so when its missing I'm just kinda, eh, okay.  But I admit that is my issue and not the books failure. It is well written and I see why it is a favorite of so many people.

True Grit is my Back to the Classics Author that is new to me selection.