As a novelist of unique wit and vision, Charles Portis has invited comparisons to Thomas Pynchon and Don DeLillo, and his writing has garnered accolades from the likes of Roy Blount, Jr., Nora Ephron, and Sam Shepard. This classic novel, the first in a series of Portis re-issues, is a perfect invitation into this master's brilliantly singular view of America.

The Dog of the South is the story of Ray Midge as he tracks down his wife, Norma—who has run off with her first husband—by following credit card receipts (his credit card!). Midge starts out in Norma's lover's compact car, which has 74,000 miles on it and a quarter-turn slack in the steering wheel (they took his Ford Torino!). The trail leads from Arkansas, down to Mexico, and into Honduras, where Midge stops to help, and of course gets entangled with, Dr. Reo Symes in his broken down bus, "The Dog of the South." Symes is a pure Portis character—a crazily optimistic dreamer obsessed with secret knowledge and with one John Selmer Dix, the elusive writer of inspirational books for salesmen. As Midge chases Norma and Symes and tries to sort the true from the false Dix sightings, Portis spins an extraordinary novel that addresses with comic eloquence the deep longing of the American psyche for things just to make some sense.