From Arkansas down to New Mexico and eventually leading to Honduras, a man is on the hunt for his wife who is following her first husband by a trail of credit card receipts.
Paperback
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Summary
From Arkansas down to New Mexico and eventually leading to Honduras, a man is on the hunt for his wife who is following her first husband by a trail of credit card receipts.
Description
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 further 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.
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,"
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. "The Dog of the South". 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.
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