The Dog of the South

By: Charles Portis

Narrated by: David Aaron Baker

From Charles Portis, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of True Grit, The Dog of the South is a novel about a husband on a crazy road trip pursuing his runaway wife.

Ray Midge is waiting for his credit card bill to arrive. His wife, Norma, has run off with her ex-husband, taking Ray’s cards, shotgun, and car. But from the receipts, Ray can track where they’ve gone.

He takes off after them, as does an irritatingly tenacious bail bondsman, both following the romantic couple’s spending as far as Mexico. There Ray meets Dr. Reo Symes, the seemingly down-on-his-luck and rather eccentric owner of a beaten-up and broken-down bus, who needs a ride to Belize. The farther they drive, in a car held together by coat hangers and excesses of oil, the wilder their journey gets. But they’re not going to give up easily.

“[Charles Portis] understood, and conveyed, the grain of America, in ways that may prove valuable in future to historians trying to understand what was decent about us as a nation.”—Donna Tartt, New York Times Book Review

©1979 Charles Portis (P)2012 Recorded Books

America's Gogol

I tell you I can't answer questions like that. You see me as a can-do guy from the States, but I don't have all the answers. I'm white and I don't dance but that doesn't mean I have all the answers.”
― Charles Portis, The Dog of the South

Charles Portis isn't God. But I believe he can do no wrong and can walk on water when I read his books. In fact, while reading his novels, the exact feeling I get can only be described as eating an overcooked eucharist; some crunchy, holy, wafer of truth that has been burnt by the absurdity of the modern world. I open the world-weary pages of a Portis novel and suddenly I am taken-up in a vision that contains the body and the blood of all that is great with American Fiction. He reminds me of some unholy combination of Cormac McCarthy and Walker Percy -- with a bit of Saul Bellow thrown in for flavor.

Let's get out of the way: the truth. This is the same dude from Arkansas that wrote True Grit. Great book. Fantastic novel and both movies were fantastic. Great. Good. Hallelujah! Now let's put that away. There is so much more to Charles Portis than just one amazing book. This isn't some one-hit wonder novelist. This guy is the real deal. Serious, put him next to Flannery O'Connor. Yes, he is that fantastic. OK, perhaps, we can't get ahead of ourselves. So, put him close to Flannery, looking up at her, but not with a craned neck. Roy Blount, Jr. has posited that "No one should die without having read [The Dog of the South]". Ron Rosenbaum thinks Charles Portis is America's Gogol. I shit you not.

Basically, the story is about a man's search for his runaway wife. She has run off with her ex-husband to Mexico and Belize and the narrator, Ray Midge, is going to track them down. This is a world where cars don't run well, the pelicans get struck by lightening, and people and fabricators, are either running to something or away from something. This is a book that is as much about figuring out where one is and where one belongs. It reminds me of that space which exists for a brief second between sleep and wake, after a crazy dream, where one is unsure about which side of the fog is real; and question gets begged which side of the fog one really belongs.

An amusing tale that goes nowhere

I loved the character who narrates this tale. What an entertaining spinner of yarns! The language is delightful -- colorful and distinctive. And the reader does a great job of bringing it to life. I got a bit frustrated with the story after a while, though. The characters are so ridiculous that it's impossible to care about what happens to them. So, I guess I would say that this is an amusing picaresque novel without a lot of staying power.

Meh

There’s no there there. Good dialogue, though, as befitting a Portis novel. Performance was good, though the narrator doesn’t nail the Arkansas accent.

Mixed

Sometimes very funny; descriptions of losers very good. Excellent reading. But not much happens. My first Portis and I’ll definitely read more.

love this book

love this book and can listen to it over and over. hilarious, artful and timeless