"In a movie, the moment of comic release comes and goes in real time. It hits me, or it doesn't, and then I'm onto the next scene. But when I'm reading, I am always re-reading. I can't help it. If there's a false step in the comic setup, I'm going to circle back to it, to see if I missed something, and by the time I've retreaded it a dozen times I have annulled the proto-chuckle that had been happily gestating in my belly."
"But I don't think I came upon a single false step in the entirety of The Dog of the South, because its author, Charles Portis, has absolute control of the space on the page. Every sentence is cunningly constructed and pretty much every page got a laugh out of me. It's unusual to read a novel that can be fairly called a "romp" but also a work of such otherworldly structural precision. And it is rarer still to feel moved by a romp."
Movies deliver comic beats in real time, while reading invites rereading that can dissipate developing laughs. Rereading a flawed comic setup often undoes an initial chuckle as readers circle back to check for errors. Absolute control of sentence-level space on the page preserves timing and allows each sentence to function as a precise comedic instrument. The novel combines rollicking, romp-like action with extraordinary structural precision. That precision concentrates laugh density while simultaneously generating warmth instead of cruelty or pity. Characters appear as scammers, malcontents, wannabes, buffoons, kooks, and marks around a pathetic man's pursuit of his bored wife. Deep immersion in the characters' milieu cultivates recognition of shared humanity beneath the comedy.
Read at Defector
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