Imagine [plot spoiler] a young woman falls down a hole out in the wild west. She can’t escape, her two friends may be dead. One arm is wedged, the other broken. It is nearly dark, there are bats, she is slipping further down. What harsh expletives will she utter?
“My thought was: This will not do.”
Then it gets worse, a rotting corpse with a nest of rattlesnakes coming out its ribcage, more slipping, a bad guy above – taunting. Does she finally lose it and curse or swear?
“This, thought I, is a pretty fix.”
Such restraint by Mattie in True Grit by Charles Portis (1968).
The films were good, the book is excellent. Its all about Rooster Cogburn’s true grit, but of course it’s the girl who has even more grit in the end.
CLIVE ANTHONY 