ONCE AT A party in New York, I met novelist Jonathan Lethem,” Jay Jennings, the editor of Escape Velocity, says in his introduction to this collection of lesser-known writings by and about Charles Portis, the beloved, publicity-allergic writer from Little Rock, Arkansas. “[I] mentioned the idea that [Portis] was our greatest unknown novelist, and he quipped, ‘Yes, he’s everybody’s favorite least-known great novelist.’” That’s a good way to think about it. Portis is a rarefied taste, but by now lots of people have acquired it.
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