I'm a genre guy at heart. A part of me will always get that little bit more excited to sit down for the beautiful gore of a Lucio Fulci picture or the gritty blood-lust of a North Water than anyone/thing with more conventionally high-brow aspirations. Nothing gets me going like a fast-paced and expertly constructed thriller, except maybe an open desert and some guns, so for me, True Grit is top of its class and then some.

Portis gets all the credit in the world for Mattie Ross, who surely ranks among literature's most wonderfully drawn and personalityful child characters, but even that's a coup. Ross is the protagonist and the narrator, but these are actually two separate people. It's the contrast between the actions and implied thoughts of the young Mattie, and the retrospective words of the older one, that elevate this to a truly sublime piece of writing. Even if it weren't so subtly brainy, True Grit would still be a constantly winning and funny revenge Western with deftly staged violence and a near-perfect third-act white knuckle thrill ride. Damn good book!