True Grit follows Mattie Ross, a 14-year-old girl who travels to Fort Ross upon hearing that her father has been shot and killed by his hired hand, Tom Chaney. Determined to avenge her father's death, she hires Rooster Cogburn, a deputy marshal known for his meanness and quick trigger finger, to help her find Tom Chaney and bring him to justice, either by the hangman's noose or at the end of a gun.
True Grit would be a fairly straightforward revenge story if it weren't for the fact that Mattie has such a distinct and interesting voice. For a 14-year-old, she is strong-willed and no-nonsense, with a particularly good mind for business. It's refreshing to see a character that in any other book set in the era would be meek and timid, and they're powering on ahead, taking absolutely no shit from anyone. It gets her in trouble, because of course it does, but she's all the more interesting for taking this strength/weakness to its logical conclusion.
The setting is definitely less bleak than the one presented by Blood Meridian, but the violence depicted stands out a lot more comparatively. It comes as more of a surprise when it does come, highlighted in particular by Mattie's comparative naivety. It ends up being a mid-point between the sort of heroic cowboy narrative that my dad grew up with and the unrelenting "humanity is scum" viewpoint that Blood Meridian settles on. There are clear distinctions between who is "good" and who is "bad", but there's a definite moral flexibility that can be seen in the characters, especially Mattie's reluctant travelling companions.
Despite my initial concerns, I found myself falling almost instantly in love with Mattie and her no-nonsense attitude. I would definitely give True Grit a read if you're looking to try out the Western genre, as it seems to be a nice middle ground between unrelentingly bleak and entirely ignoring the negative aspects of Reconstruction America. 4.5/5
Next review: K-ON! Volume 2 by kakifly
Signing off,
Nisa.
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