A novel about vengeance with a powerful female narrator off to a great startt

I started reading charles Portis's  much-recommended 1968 novel, True Grit, and I was surprised how much of it wasn't coming back to me. I'm sure I never read it before , and I would have sworn that I never saw the famous John Wayne movie version, but I guess I have seen it - so much for memory and for swearing (tho not underneath oath) for recollected truth. In any event like so many other readers, I'm struck right away by the powerful plot - a 14-year-old in Arkansas during I think the reconstruction era sets off alone to hire a gunman to avenge the murder of her father - and the voice of the plucky, daring, intelligent narrator - all this becoming evident in literally the first paragraph. You can't stop reading, and the wonder is it took a while for a film version to be made. I suspect that most who read this novel are guys, but given the powerful and self-reliant female narrator I would not hesitate to recommend this book to all readers, thomof course even if I saw the film I can't recall the outcome, so Imcant say for sure that Portis maintains he momentum and the voice.  I'm guessing he does, tho he seems in complete control of his material and exceptionally well versed in the details of life in that era - esp in the life of roughneck horse traders, outlaws and lawmen. If he had to do research to get this novel going, he wears it lightly.