Review of "Gringos" by Charles Portis Item 16 - Finish 30 26 books

(Source)

This is the fourth Portis book that I've read (the others being "True Grit", "Norwood", and "The Dog of the South") which actually makes me sad as I write that, because I now realize I only have one of his books left to read. Portis writes the sort of road trip stories that meander from place to place, with an utterly contradictory unhurried pace but still with a sense of urgency of goal.

"Gringos", more than any of his other three books that I've read, is a character study. Not just of the narrator Jimmy Burns (about whom we seem to learn more than any of Portis' previous narrators) but also each of the characters around him. Portis' ability to sketch and breathe life into these characters is fully on display here. We have his usual cast of cranks, blow-hards, fools and "hippies," but the thing that always makes Portis' characters seem real is the fact that his narrators tend to be just as flawed. Plus, it rings true to how we see the world; you know that everyone around you is not an idiot, but through your eyes it can sure look that way sometimes.

As a funny quirk of happenstance, I finished reading this book right at about the time of the Mayan No-pocalypse a couple weeks back. A funny coincidence considering that some of the major action occurs during what one group of new-agey types think is the end of the long count calendar. Portis pretty soundly voiced my own opinion on various apocalpticos, something I've more or less said to people before:

These lost sheep knew nothing. I was pretty sure of that. They simply wanted to be on stage for the dramatic finish. It must all wind down with them and nobody else. The thought of the world going on and on without them, much as usual, and they forgotten, was unbearable.

-Charles Portis, Gringos