Synopses & Reviews
As a novelist with a brilliantly singular vision of America, Charles Portis has invited comparisons to Pynchon and DeLillo. This reissue of
The Dog of the South, to be followed by
Masters of Atlantis,
Norwood, and
Gringos, is the perfect Portis initiation for new readers and a welcome reunion for longtime fans.
The Dog of the South is the story of Ray Midge tracking down his wife, Norma who has run off with her first husband by following credit card receipts (His credit card!). Midge starts out in Norma's lover's compact car, which has 74,000 miles on it and a quarter-turn slack in the steering wheel (They took his Ford Torino!). The trail leads from Arkansas, down to Mexico, and into Honduras, where Midge stops to help, and of course gets entangled with, Dr. Reo Symes in his broken down bus. Symes is a pure Portis character a crazily optimistic, broken-down dreamer obsessed with secret knowledge in the form of John Selmer Dix, the elusive writer of inspirational books for salesmen. As Midge chases Norma and Symes tries to sort the true from the false Dix sightings, Portis spins an extraordinary novel that addresses with comic eloquence the deep longing of the American psyche for things just to make some sense.
Review
"Simultaneously hilarious and heart breakingly odd...you find yourself laughing so hard in sections that tears run down your face." Balitmore Sun
About the Author
Charles Portis lives in Arkansas, where he was born and educated. He served in the Marine Corps during the Korean War. As a reporter, he wrote for the New York Herald-Tribune and was also its London bureau chief. He is the author of four other novels, including Masters of Atlantis, The Dog of the South, Norwood, and Gringos.