Not Gritty Enough, Not Picaresque -- Dog of the South

Don't get me wrong, I liked this book even though I have concluded it is not truly picaresque. The Dog of the South, written by Charles Portis, author of True Grit, has several elements: a trip, from Little Rock to British Honduras; a disaffected protagonist, Ray Midge; traveling companion, in fact two -- bail bondsman Jack Wilkie and owner of the "dog" (a magic bus painted white and completely immobile) quack doctor Reo Symes; it has a quest, if only to retrieve his Ford Torino, absconded with by his wife, Norma, and her first husband, Guy Dupree. Sadly lacking, however, are truly debased escapades, a critique of a culture, and a denouement of enlightenment. Ray finds his wife, recuperating from appendicitis in a hospital innudated by a hurricane, finds his car in a junk yard, and sort of finds redemption in finally getting his BA degree. The book really falls off in the last quarter or so, more so at the end. Jack gives up on the pursuit of Guy; Reo disappears without his mother's assets; and Norma runs off again. Maybe this is hinted at as Ray never gets to see the Southern Cross. And so it goes.

Nonetheless, Portis has a talent for turn of phrase: his orders in greasy spoons revel Five Easy Pieces; his depictions of Buicks, little old ladies, cops and Mexican border guards are humorous and expressed in short sardonic sentences. But clever puns cannot make up for characters that are introduced only to be left out in the Central American ether or to be almost extraneous to the plot.