"If Papa had a failing it was his kindly disposition. People would use him. I did not get my mean streak from him." So writes 14 year-old Mattie Ross, who's dear father was gunned down by a no-good farm hand, Tom Chaney. Chaney took off to Oklahoma after shooting Mattie's father. Mattie's mission is to exact revenge. Not justice. Revenge. She decides to hire a U.S. Marshal to track Cheney down. Mattie Ross is smart, practical, stubborn, judgmental and has the grit to hire the toughest, meanest U.S. Marshal she can find— Rooster Cogburn.

True Grit is eccentric, cool, straight, and unflinching, like Mattie herself. From a writer of true cult status, this is an American classic through and through.