Born losers (2)

In Charles Portis (1933-2020) was called "the Mark Twain of our age," but his name rarely appears on lists of novels you must read before you die. It's a paradoxical situation, because the book I plan to get my hands on when my time comes is precisely one of his (actually, if I may be frank, I have no intention of being surprised by the grim reaper reading it).

Portis was born in Arkansas and served as marine in Korea. Upon his return, he worked for the local newspaper and later for the Herald TribuneHe was an unusual journalist (his desk didn't have a phone) and one corner Unrepentant; Tom Wolfe introduced him as "the funniest man I've ever met." In 1966, the future author quit his job and locked himself in a fishing cabin to write his debut, Norwood. This and the four following novels are fast-paced, unusual, and very, very funny. Humorist Roy Blunt Jr. said of him: "Charles Portis could have been Cormac McCarthy if he'd wanted, but he chose to have a sense of humor."

Portis wrote in fresh, authentic voices, in a rhythmic, no-nonsense style. "Nobody sounds like him," said Nora Ephron. In Legal value (1968), her only best-selling novel (adapted to film twice, once by the Coen brothers), the elderly Maddy Ross recounts how, at the age of fourteen, she decided to take revenge on her father's murderer. The tone is sarcastic and impassive, a shocking anecdote told with a poker face. In the same vein, with Ray Midge, the protagonist ofThe dog of the south (1979), the writer managed to make someone who stacks coins on the bar "according to their value" and who owns "sixty feet of books" end up being fascinating, and hilarious, page after page, in a delirious crusade to win back his wife, on the way to British Honduras.

Charles Portis was "a model of artistic courage" (Dwight Yoakam): he lived only to write novels, and was not enthusiastic about promoting them (very few photos of the author exist, and even fewer interviews). He was not a bitter Salinger: he liked to socialize, fish, and drink with his friends from Arkansas, where he returned to settle. His example is inspiring.

Although serious culture continues to reject Portis' entry into the literary pantheon, among his followers (Portisheads?) are counted, in addition to those called, George Pelecanos (who considers him "a mythical figure"), Conan O'Brien (for whom Masters of Atlantis It is "one of the few laugh-out-loud novels I've ever read") and, most especially,

Kiko Amat