“True grip” is a name of the novel that can have many synonymous meanings – true valor, strength of mind, strength of spirit, complete self-control, veritable steadfastness, gritting the teeth, true courage and true tempering. If you want to get to know what will be the main motive of this story, you just need to hear its name. Severe people will do their cruel business on the wild lands, but only there will not be a lot of skirmishes and pathos. The main benefit of this book is its diversity and greatness. It embraces the reader gently, but confidently, like a boa constrictor, twists and bewitches. And even if you are not a fan of the classical western, you will still like this book. The story is retold by Mattie Ross. The manner of using words, dialogues and phrases so clearly characterize the narrator, as if you always see this girl in front of you. Sometimes, Mattie’s words, phrases and arguments, pronounced very seriously, cause a smile or even a burst of laughter.
In general, the book is surprisingly easy to read, despite the difficult situations and events described in it. The novel draws deeper into the atmosphere and realities of America of that time, human life and society, the judicial system, the geographical features of the State of Arkansas, the analysis of personalities of the cult criminals, the Civil War of that period and people’s attitude to power.
Western is a special genre that is incomparable with anything. There are many desperate people in the Wild West, but only the strongest survive. The novel shows what helps to survive and how to keep the mind and the aim of the life. The main character Mattie Ross is the most unusual character for Western,
This book is small, but the author manages to tell a lot of interesting things. Here, there are ridiculous and idiotic situations that are perfectly described and the author’s irony can be appreciated jolly well. However, in fact, everything is destroyed here – the usual style of life, laws and morality, ideology, religious beliefs and even such seemingly necessary things for survival as everyday logic and common sense… You will be surprised and you will have many questions. Nevertheless, the answer is simple – today one person helps the other to survive, giving some shelter and food, and tomorrow this rescued man will shoot the benefactor. Why and for what? Nobody can explain. It seems that the very idea of the future, at least some development, is completely missing, so that no one even tries to think about something or plan something for more or less long-term periods of time. Here, time has clearly stopped.
Nevertheless, the author wrote this book with many different goals. He wanted to show the pain that we feel when we lose our family. He showed the revenge that can appear at any period of our life. He showed that any crime has a punishment. And finally, he showed that good always wins evil even in this genre of the book.
