
Escape Velocity
A Charles Portis Miscellany
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.00 for first 30 days
Buy for $21.49
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Susan Bennett
-
T. Ryder Smith
About this listen
Best known for his glorious comic novels—including the American classic True Grit—Charles Portis was also a prolific essayist, travel writer, and newspaper reporter. Now, for the first time, these writings—journalism, short fiction, memoir, travel stories, and even a play—have been brought together in Escape Velocity: A Charles Portis Miscellany.
The collection encompasses the breadth of Portis’s fifty-year writing career, covering topics as varied as road tripping in Baja, Elvis’s visits to his aging mother, and his own boyhood in Arkansas. Also included in Escape Velocity are Portis’s three-act play Delray’s New Moon; “Damn!”, a rare short story from 1957; and tributes by Donna Tartt, Wells Tower, Ron Rosenbaum, Ed Park, and Roy Blount, Jr.
While fans of Charles Portis’s sly and distinctive humor, quirky characters, and keen ear for detail will be thrilled at this new addition to their libraries, Escape Velocity will also serve as an essential introduction to those not yet familiar with his work.
©2013 Charles Portis; Compilation (c)2012 The Butler Center for Arkansas Studies; Introduction (c)2012 Jay Jennings (P)2022 Recorded BooksListeners also enjoyed...
-
Gringos
- By: Charles Portis
- Narrated by: David Aaron Baker
- Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For a time, Jimmy spent his expat days in Mexico unearthing pre-Columbian artifacts. Now he makes a living doing small trucking jobs and helping out with the occasional missing-person situation. But Jimmy’s laid-back lifestyle is being seriously imposed upon by a ninety-pound stalker named Louise. Add to this a sudden wave of hippies led by a murderous ex-con guru in search of psychic happenings, archaeologists unearthing (illegally) the Mayan tombs, and Louise and her weirdo husband’s quest for UFO sites, and Jimmy’s south-of-the-border existence is in danger.
-
-
A modern Mark Twain
- By Patrick King on 06-29-23
By: Charles Portis
-
True Grit
- By: Charles Portis
- Narrated by: Donna Tartt
- Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mattie Ross, a 14-year-old girl from Dardanelle, Arkansas, sets out to avenge her Daddy who was shot to death by a no-good outlaw. Mattie convinces one-eyed "Rooster" Cogburn, the meanest U.S. marshal in the land, to ride along with her. In True Grit, we have a true American classic, as young Mattie, as vital as she is innocent, outdickers and outmaneuvers the hard-bitten men of the trail in a legend that will last through the ages.
-
-
So worth it!
- By Tommygaus on 12-29-10
By: Charles Portis
-
Masters of Atlantis
- By: Charles Portis
- Narrated by: Jefferson Mays
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lamar Jimmerson is the leader of the Gnomon Society, the international fraternal order dedicated to preserving the arcane wisdom of the lost city of Atlantis. Stationed in France in 1917, Jimmerson comes across a little book crammed with Atlantean puzzles, Egyptian riddles, and extended alchemical metaphors. It's the Codex Pappus—the sacred Gnomon text. Soon he is basking in the lore of lost Atlantis, convinced that his mission on earth is to administer to and extend the ranks of the noble brotherhood.
-
-
What if “The Illuminatius Trilogy” was boring?
- By Francis on 04-26-24
By: Charles Portis
-
Norwood
- By: Charles Portis
- Narrated by: David Aaron Baker
- Length: 4 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An American literary treasure, Charles Portis penned the Western classic True Grit. Set in the 1960s, Norwood is a picaresque romp taking audiences on a journey from Texas to New York and back again. An ex-marine, troubadour Norwood Pratt is on a mission to recover money he once loaned to a buddy in the service. Along the way, he gets into all manner of trouble involving stolen cars, beautiful women, and a chicken with a college education.
-
-
Oddball Odyssey
- By Rick on 03-30-17
By: Charles Portis
-
The Dog of the South
- By: Charles Portis
- Narrated by: David Aaron Baker
- Length: 8 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
America's Gogol
- By Darwin8u on 03-21-16
By: Charles Portis
-
The Wager
- A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder
- By: David Grann
- Narrated by: Dion Graham, David Grann
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty’s Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While the Wager had been chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon known as “the prize of all the oceans,” it had wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia.
-
-
Gasping for Air
- By Jean Engle on 04-19-23
By: David Grann
-
Gringos
- By: Charles Portis
- Narrated by: David Aaron Baker
- Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For a time, Jimmy spent his expat days in Mexico unearthing pre-Columbian artifacts. Now he makes a living doing small trucking jobs and helping out with the occasional missing-person situation. But Jimmy’s laid-back lifestyle is being seriously imposed upon by a ninety-pound stalker named Louise. Add to this a sudden wave of hippies led by a murderous ex-con guru in search of psychic happenings, archaeologists unearthing (illegally) the Mayan tombs, and Louise and her weirdo husband’s quest for UFO sites, and Jimmy’s south-of-the-border existence is in danger.
-
-
A modern Mark Twain
- By Patrick King on 06-29-23
By: Charles Portis
-
True Grit
- By: Charles Portis
- Narrated by: Donna Tartt
- Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mattie Ross, a 14-year-old girl from Dardanelle, Arkansas, sets out to avenge her Daddy who was shot to death by a no-good outlaw. Mattie convinces one-eyed "Rooster" Cogburn, the meanest U.S. marshal in the land, to ride along with her. In True Grit, we have a true American classic, as young Mattie, as vital as she is innocent, outdickers and outmaneuvers the hard-bitten men of the trail in a legend that will last through the ages.
-
-
So worth it!
- By Tommygaus on 12-29-10
By: Charles Portis
-
Masters of Atlantis
- By: Charles Portis
- Narrated by: Jefferson Mays
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lamar Jimmerson is the leader of the Gnomon Society, the international fraternal order dedicated to preserving the arcane wisdom of the lost city of Atlantis. Stationed in France in 1917, Jimmerson comes across a little book crammed with Atlantean puzzles, Egyptian riddles, and extended alchemical metaphors. It's the Codex Pappus—the sacred Gnomon text. Soon he is basking in the lore of lost Atlantis, convinced that his mission on earth is to administer to and extend the ranks of the noble brotherhood.
-
-
What if “The Illuminatius Trilogy” was boring?
- By Francis on 04-26-24
By: Charles Portis
-
Norwood
- By: Charles Portis
- Narrated by: David Aaron Baker
- Length: 4 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An American literary treasure, Charles Portis penned the Western classic True Grit. Set in the 1960s, Norwood is a picaresque romp taking audiences on a journey from Texas to New York and back again. An ex-marine, troubadour Norwood Pratt is on a mission to recover money he once loaned to a buddy in the service. Along the way, he gets into all manner of trouble involving stolen cars, beautiful women, and a chicken with a college education.
-
-
Oddball Odyssey
- By Rick on 03-30-17
By: Charles Portis
-
The Dog of the South
- By: Charles Portis
- Narrated by: David Aaron Baker
- Length: 8 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
America's Gogol
- By Darwin8u on 03-21-16
By: Charles Portis
-
The Wager
- A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder
- By: David Grann
- Narrated by: Dion Graham, David Grann
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty’s Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While the Wager had been chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon known as “the prize of all the oceans,” it had wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia.
-
-
Gasping for Air
- By Jean Engle on 04-19-23
By: David Grann
-
The End Is Always Near
- Apocalyptic Moments, from the Bronze Age Collapse to Nuclear Near Misses
- By: Dan Carlin
- Narrated by: Dan Carlin
- Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The End Is Always Near, Dan Carlin looks at questions and historical events that force us to consider what sounds like fantasy; that we might suffer the same fate that all previous eras did. Will our world ever become a ruin for future archaeologists to dig up and explore? The questions themselves are both philosophical and like something out of The Twilight Zone.
-
-
Hardcore Histories Greatest Hits
- By Steven Glover on 10-31-19
By: Dan Carlin
-
Zero Fail
- The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service
- By: Carol Leonnig
- Narrated by: Maggi-Meg Reed, Carol Leonnig
- Length: 20 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Carol Leonnig has been reporting on the Secret Service for The Washington Post for most of the last decade, bringing to light the secrets, scandals, and shortcomings that plague the agency today - from a toxic work culture to dangerously outdated equipment to the deep resentment within the ranks at key agency leaders, who put protecting the agency’s once-hallowed image before fixing its flaws. But the Secret Service wasn’t always so troubled.
-
-
Bait and switch narration with tabloid journalism
- By Paul P on 05-24-21
By: Carol Leonnig
-
The Winter of Our Discontent
- By: John Steinbeck
- Narrated by: David Aaron Baker
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The final novel of one of America’s most beloved writers - a tale of degeneration, corruption, and spiritual crisis. A Penguin Classic In awarding John Steinbeck the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature, the Nobel committee stated that with The Winter of Our Discontent, he had “resumed his position as an independent expounder of the truth, with an unbiased instinct for what is genuinely American". Ethan Allen Hawley, the protagonist of Steinbeck’s last novel, works as a clerk in a grocery store that his family once owned.
-
-
Memorable characters, great narration, POOR AUDIO
- By Sam D. on 05-18-16
By: John Steinbeck
-
Based on a True Story
- A Memoir
- By: Norm Macdonald
- Narrated by: Norm Macdonald, Tim O'Halloran
- Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Norm Macdonald, one of the greatest stand-up comics of all time, was approached to write a celebrity memoir, he flatly refused, calling the genre “one step below instruction manuals.” Norm then promptly took a two-year hiatus from stand-up comedy to live on a farm in northern Canada. When he emerged he had under his arm a manuscript, a genre-smashing book about comedy, tragedy, love, loss, war, and redemption. When asked if this was the celebrity memoir, Norm replied, “Call it anything you damn like.”
-
-
Bizarre, funny ride
- By Michael Chauvin on 09-25-16
By: Norm Macdonald
-
Harold
- By: Steven Wright
- Narrated by: Steven Wright
- Length: 5 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the outside, Harold is an average seven-year-old third grader growing up in the 1960s. Bored by school. Crushing on a girl. Likes movies and baseball—especially the hometown Boston Red Sox. Enjoys spending time with his grandfather. But inside Harold’s mind, things are a lot more complex and unusual. His thoughts come to him as birds flying through a small rectangle in the middle of his brain. He visits an outdoor cafe on the moon and is invited aboard a spaceship by famed astronomer Carl Sagan.
-
-
Yes, Harold?
- By DC333 on 06-27-23
By: Steven Wright
-
Slaughterhouse-Five
- By: Kurt Vonnegut
- Narrated by: James Franco
- Length: 5 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Traumatized by the bombing of Dresden at the time he had been imprisoned, Pilgrim drifts through all events and history, sometimes deeply implicated, sometimes a witness. He is surrounded by Vonnegut's usual large cast of continuing characters (notably here the hack science fiction writer Kilgore Trout and the alien Tralfamadorians, who oversee his life and remind him constantly that there is no causation, no order, no motive to existence).
-
-
Don't Quit Your Daytime Job, James
- By Keith on 11-20-15
By: Kurt Vonnegut
-
All the Sinners Bleed
- A Novel
- By: S. A. Cosby
- Narrated by: Adam Lazarre-White
- Length: 13 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Titus Crown is the first Black sheriff in the history of Charon County, Virginia. In recent decades, quiet Charon has had only two murders. But after years of working as an FBI agent, Titus knows better than anyone that while his hometown might seem like a land of moonshine, cornbread, and honeysuckle, secrets always fester under the surface. Then a year to the day after Titus’s election, a school teacher is killed by a former student and the student is fatally shot by Titus’s deputies. As Titus investigates the shootings, he unearths terrible crimes.
-
-
Visceral, gripping, thrilling and entertaining
- By Victor @ theAudiobookBlog dot com on 06-26-23
By: S. A. Cosby
-
In Cold Blood
- By: Truman Capote
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 14 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues.
-
-
Still the Best
- By Lisa on 01-10-06
By: Truman Capote
-
Geneva
- By: Richard Armitage
- Narrated by: Richard Armitage, Nicola Walker, Jane Perry
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nobel Prize-winning scientist Sarah Collier has taken a step back from work to spend more time with her family. Movie nights with her husband Daniel and their daughter Maddie are a welcome respite from the scrutiny of the world’s press. As much as it hurts, it’s good to be able to see her father more too. He’s suffering from Alzheimer’s and needs special care. Sarah has started to show tell-tale signs of the disease too. She’s been experiencing blackouts and memory loss. It’s early days but she must face the possibility that she won’t be there to see her daughter grow up.
-
-
Well done, Mr. Armitage!
- By Betty B. on 10-25-22
By: Richard Armitage
-
His Majesty's Airship
- The Life and Tragic Death of the World's Largest Flying Machine
- By: S. C. Gwynne
- Narrated by: Nicholas Boulton
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The tragic fate of the British airship R101—which went down in a spectacular fireball in 1930, killing more people than died in the Hindenburg disaster seven years later—has been largely forgotten. In His Majesty’s Airship, S.C. Gwynne resurrects it in vivid detail, telling the epic story of great ambition gone terribly wrong.
-
-
O, The Humanity
- By Glenn G Poole II on 06-11-23
By: S. C. Gwynne
-
Ozark Dogs
- By: Eli Cranor
- Narrated by: Eli Cranor
- Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After his son is convicted of capital murder, Vietnam War veteran Jeremiah Fitzjurls takes over the care of his granddaughter, Joanna, raising her with as much warmth as can be found in an Ozark junkyard outfitted to be an armory. He teaches her how to shoot and fight, but there is not enough training in the world to protect her when the dreaded Ledfords, notorious meth dealers and fanatical white supremacists, come to collect on Joanna as payment for a long-overdue blood debt.
-
-
Riveting story with unexpected twists!
- By Corbey Dukes on 07-31-23
By: Eli Cranor
-
Breakfast of Champions
- By: Kurt Vonnegut
- Narrated by: John Malkovich
- Length: 6 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Breakfast of Champions (1973) provides frantic, scattershot satire and a collage of Vonnegut's obsessions. His recurring cast of characters and American landscape was perhaps the most controversial of his canon; it was felt by many at the time to be a disappointing successor to Slaughterhouse-Five, which had made Vonnegut's literary reputation.
-
-
Kurt Was Right to Grade This a C
- By Dubi on 01-10-16
By: Kurt Vonnegut
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
The Dog of the South
- By: Charles Portis
- Narrated by: David Aaron Baker
- Length: 8 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
America's Gogol
- By Darwin8u on 03-21-16
By: Charles Portis
-
Gringos
- By: Charles Portis
- Narrated by: David Aaron Baker
- Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For a time, Jimmy spent his expat days in Mexico unearthing pre-Columbian artifacts. Now he makes a living doing small trucking jobs and helping out with the occasional missing-person situation. But Jimmy’s laid-back lifestyle is being seriously imposed upon by a ninety-pound stalker named Louise. Add to this a sudden wave of hippies led by a murderous ex-con guru in search of psychic happenings, archaeologists unearthing (illegally) the Mayan tombs, and Louise and her weirdo husband’s quest for UFO sites, and Jimmy’s south-of-the-border existence is in danger.
-
-
A modern Mark Twain
- By Patrick King on 06-29-23
By: Charles Portis
-
Masters of Atlantis
- By: Charles Portis
- Narrated by: Jefferson Mays
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lamar Jimmerson is the leader of the Gnomon Society, the international fraternal order dedicated to preserving the arcane wisdom of the lost city of Atlantis. Stationed in France in 1917, Jimmerson comes across a little book crammed with Atlantean puzzles, Egyptian riddles, and extended alchemical metaphors. It's the Codex Pappus—the sacred Gnomon text. Soon he is basking in the lore of lost Atlantis, convinced that his mission on earth is to administer to and extend the ranks of the noble brotherhood.
-
-
What if “The Illuminatius Trilogy” was boring?
- By Francis on 04-26-24
By: Charles Portis
-
Norwood
- By: Charles Portis
- Narrated by: David Aaron Baker
- Length: 4 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An American literary treasure, Charles Portis penned the Western classic True Grit. Set in the 1960s, Norwood is a picaresque romp taking audiences on a journey from Texas to New York and back again. An ex-marine, troubadour Norwood Pratt is on a mission to recover money he once loaned to a buddy in the service. Along the way, he gets into all manner of trouble involving stolen cars, beautiful women, and a chicken with a college education.
-
-
Oddball Odyssey
- By Rick on 03-30-17
By: Charles Portis
-
True Grit
- By: Charles Portis
- Narrated by: Donna Tartt
- Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mattie Ross, a 14-year-old girl from Dardanelle, Arkansas, sets out to avenge her Daddy who was shot to death by a no-good outlaw. Mattie convinces one-eyed "Rooster" Cogburn, the meanest U.S. marshal in the land, to ride along with her. In True Grit, we have a true American classic, as young Mattie, as vital as she is innocent, outdickers and outmaneuvers the hard-bitten men of the trail in a legend that will last through the ages.
-
-
So worth it!
- By Tommygaus on 12-29-10
By: Charles Portis
-
Little Big Man
- By: Thomas Berger, Larry McMurtry - introduction
- Narrated by: David Aaron Baker, Scott Sowers, Henry Strozier
- Length: 20 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Audie Award, Literary Fiction, 2016. The story of Jack Crabbe, raised by both a white man and a Cheyenne chief. As a Cheyenne, Jack ate dog, had four wives, and saw his people butchered by General Custer's soldiers. As a white man, he participated in the slaughter of the buffalo and tangled with Wyatt Earp.
-
-
It's a Good Day to Listen
- By Dubi on 05-21-15
By: Thomas Berger, and others
-
The Dog of the South
- By: Charles Portis
- Narrated by: David Aaron Baker
- Length: 8 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
America's Gogol
- By Darwin8u on 03-21-16
By: Charles Portis
-
Gringos
- By: Charles Portis
- Narrated by: David Aaron Baker
- Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For a time, Jimmy spent his expat days in Mexico unearthing pre-Columbian artifacts. Now he makes a living doing small trucking jobs and helping out with the occasional missing-person situation. But Jimmy’s laid-back lifestyle is being seriously imposed upon by a ninety-pound stalker named Louise. Add to this a sudden wave of hippies led by a murderous ex-con guru in search of psychic happenings, archaeologists unearthing (illegally) the Mayan tombs, and Louise and her weirdo husband’s quest for UFO sites, and Jimmy’s south-of-the-border existence is in danger.
-
-
A modern Mark Twain
- By Patrick King on 06-29-23
By: Charles Portis
-
Masters of Atlantis
- By: Charles Portis
- Narrated by: Jefferson Mays
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lamar Jimmerson is the leader of the Gnomon Society, the international fraternal order dedicated to preserving the arcane wisdom of the lost city of Atlantis. Stationed in France in 1917, Jimmerson comes across a little book crammed with Atlantean puzzles, Egyptian riddles, and extended alchemical metaphors. It's the Codex Pappus—the sacred Gnomon text. Soon he is basking in the lore of lost Atlantis, convinced that his mission on earth is to administer to and extend the ranks of the noble brotherhood.
-
-
What if “The Illuminatius Trilogy” was boring?
- By Francis on 04-26-24
By: Charles Portis
-
Norwood
- By: Charles Portis
- Narrated by: David Aaron Baker
- Length: 4 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An American literary treasure, Charles Portis penned the Western classic True Grit. Set in the 1960s, Norwood is a picaresque romp taking audiences on a journey from Texas to New York and back again. An ex-marine, troubadour Norwood Pratt is on a mission to recover money he once loaned to a buddy in the service. Along the way, he gets into all manner of trouble involving stolen cars, beautiful women, and a chicken with a college education.
-
-
Oddball Odyssey
- By Rick on 03-30-17
By: Charles Portis
-
True Grit
- By: Charles Portis
- Narrated by: Donna Tartt
- Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mattie Ross, a 14-year-old girl from Dardanelle, Arkansas, sets out to avenge her Daddy who was shot to death by a no-good outlaw. Mattie convinces one-eyed "Rooster" Cogburn, the meanest U.S. marshal in the land, to ride along with her. In True Grit, we have a true American classic, as young Mattie, as vital as she is innocent, outdickers and outmaneuvers the hard-bitten men of the trail in a legend that will last through the ages.
-
-
So worth it!
- By Tommygaus on 12-29-10
By: Charles Portis
-
Little Big Man
- By: Thomas Berger, Larry McMurtry - introduction
- Narrated by: David Aaron Baker, Scott Sowers, Henry Strozier
- Length: 20 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Audie Award, Literary Fiction, 2016. The story of Jack Crabbe, raised by both a white man and a Cheyenne chief. As a Cheyenne, Jack ate dog, had four wives, and saw his people butchered by General Custer's soldiers. As a white man, he participated in the slaughter of the buffalo and tangled with Wyatt Earp.
-
-
It's a Good Day to Listen
- By Dubi on 05-21-15
By: Thomas Berger, and others
-
Leaving Cheyenne
- By: Larry McMurtry
- Narrated by: John Randolph Jones
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As the world enters a new century, three teenagers forge a future for themselves on the wild Texas grasslands: Gideon Fry, torn between going his way and following his father's footsteps; Johnny McCloud, whose restless spirit finds its solace traversing an open range; and Molly Taylor, the woman they both love. Rugged, bold and volatile, the three of them come of age in this tender and intimate novel of the heart.
-
-
Beautiful and sincere novel
- By Paul on 05-22-09
By: Larry McMurtry
-
Terms of Endearment
- By: Larry McMurtry
- Narrated by: Barbara Rosenblat
- Length: 15 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A widow with a small army of suitors, Aurora Greenway loves the limelight. She’s got three grandchildren whom she adores (in small doses) and her son-in-law Flap, whom she’s not really crazy about. And there’s her daughter Emma. In some ways, Emma is all there ever was. Now, there’s little time left to say the things that need to be said.
-
-
So Much Better Than The Movie
- By Julia on 02-10-16
By: Larry McMurtry
-
The Right Side
- By: Spencer Quinn
- Narrated by: Susan Bennett
- Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
LeAnne Hogan went to Afghanistan as a rising star in the military and came back a much lesser person, mentally and physically. Now missing an eye and with half her face badly scarred, she can barely remember the disastrous desert operation that almost killed her. She is confused, angry, and suspects the fault is hers, even though nobody will come out and say it. Shattered by one last blow - the sudden death of her hospital roommate, Marci - LeAnne finds herself on a fateful drive across the country, reflecting on her past and seeing no future.
-
-
Congratulations to Spencer Quinn
- By cherry patrick jamison on 07-14-17
By: Spencer Quinn
-
Dances with Wolves
- By: Michael Blake
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ordered to hold an abandoned army post, John Dunbar found himself alone, beyond the edge of civilization. Thievery and survival soon forced him into the Indian camp, where he began a dangerous adventure that changed his life forever. Set in 1863, the novel follows Lieutenant John Dunbar on a magical journey from the ravages of the Civil War to the far reaches of the imperiled American frontier, a frontier he naively wants to see "before it is gone".
-
-
Even better than the movie. Excellent narration.
- By JSP on 12-28-19
By: Michael Blake
-
Suttree
- By: Cormac McCarthy
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 20 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No discussion of great modern authors is complete without mention of Cormac McCarthy, whose rare and blazing talent makes his every work a true literary event. A grand addition to the American literary canon, Suttree introduces readers to Cornelius Suttree, a man who abandons his affluent family to live among a dissolute array of vagabonds along the Tennessee river.
-
-
The River of Sewers, Stars, Life, and Death
- By Jefferson on 08-08-13
By: Cormac McCarthy
-
No Country for Old Men
- By: Cormac McCarthy
- Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
- Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cormac McCarthy, best-selling author of National Book Award winner All the Pretty Horses, delivers his first new novel in seven years. Written in muscular prose, No Country for Old Men is a powerful tale of the West that moves at a blistering pace.
-
-
Exceptional, engrossing, frightening.
- By P. Giorgio on 07-27-13
By: Cormac McCarthy