(An important early detail is that Midge is somewhat more concerned about the car than the wife.) The ensuing travelogue verges on the psychedelic, and is both literally and metaphorically hijacked by one of the most indelible characters in American literature, Dr.

One of the funniest and strangest novels published in the English language, “The Dog of the South” follows the endearingly credulous and well-meaning Arkansan Ray Midge on a dizzying journey to track down his rival Guy Dupree, who has stolen both Midge’s wife and his Ford Torino.

He contributed a couple of low-stakes sequel scripts but was otherwise quiet until “ The Dog of the South” was published in 1979. Never forthcoming about matters of biography - he had steadfastly refused to supply a standard author’s photo for the release of “Norwood” - Portis now faced a paradox: The success of Wayne and Hathaway’s movie essentially told the general public the least-relevant information about his work. That Oscar-winning version of “True Grit” placed Portis in a precarious position of industry notoriety that he was arguably never fully able to navigate. Mattie’s for-hire lawman/assassin, Rooster Cogburn, is much closer to a hair-trigger Falstaff than the resolute Manifest Destiny hero John Wayne depicted in Henry Hathaway’s 1969 film adaptation. An addictive tour de force told through the inimitable voice of Mattie Ross, who recounts the time when she was a justice-obsessed 14-year-old, it’s a gut-busting, pitch-black comedy that is one part Shakespearean revenge fantasy and one part demystification of Old West mythos. “True Grit” was life-changing in ways Portis couldn’t have anticipated. “Norwood” is a Southern Gothic version of “ On the Road ,” only funnier and with better manners. These are American stock characters and stereotypes stood on their head. It’s easy to see why the Coen brothers - avowed Portis fans who adapted his second novel, “True Grit,” in 2010 - have cited him repeatedly as a central influence. Induced to fence some stolen cars by driving them east, Norwood quickly loses interest in his central journey, collects an old debt, garners a girlfriend and eventually beats the instigating grifter half to death when he is threatened with repercussions for his apostasy. But what a weird feature! Norwood Pratt is an earnest gas station employee who gets wrapped up in a roustabout grifter’s web. Mirroring his journalism training, there is an emphasis on economy of language: Slender, at 190 pages, it possesses the character of a well-written travel feature.

“Norwood” is a brief but compelling introduction to the offbeat and exciting prose style Portis would develop as a fiction writer. Luckily, he was an even better novelist than he was a journalist.

Author of true grit