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News of the World
In the aftermath of the Civil War, an aging itinerant news reader agrees to transport a young captive of the Kiowa back to her people in this exquisitely rendered, morally complex, multilayered novel of historical fiction from the author of Enemy Women that explores the boundaries of family, responsibility, honor, and trust.
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I chose this book because I heard about the story line on a podcast and for the following reasons: 1) It take place in Texas, post-Civil War Texas … yeah, I am a snob about that. 2) Its historical fiction with a protagonist loosely based on a real guy with character and substance. 3) The other main character is a little girl who had been captured by a Kiowa raiding party. Full disclosure, my 2x great grandmother Anna Metzge was captured by Comanche in 1865(though some sources say Kiowa… I’m not sure and she might not have been sure either). Both lived to tell about it. 4) Oh and I liked the cover. The author has this way of perfectly describing scenes using the fewest number of works. I wish I could do that. I just love, love, love this book. And guess what? Tom Hanks is doing the movie version. Score! It’s not on Audible so you will actually have to read it. But I love it so much, call me and I will read it to you!
Also finished News of the World. Much better book than the movie. Interesting story set just after the Civil War. About a traveling news reader who takes on the task of transporting a white girl who was rescued from native Americans back to her family. Very good story.
Check out this book on Goodreads: News of the World https://goodreads.com/book/show/25817493-news-of-the-world
An absorbing, touching read that transported me back in time and left me emotionally invested, happily satisfied, and with so many compelling topics to further explore. The author suggests one topic in particular - "the psychology of children captured and adopted by Native American tribes on the frontier...should read Scott Zesch's book The Captured. It is excellent." What happened to these children that even when captured and held for a less than year, converted them entirely into Indians - their hearts and ways never to fully re-adjust when returned to their non-native families?
Inspired by true-life stories of Caesar Adolphus Kydd, our fictional protagonist Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd experienced the war of 1812 as a young man, the Mexican war as a man in his 50's, became a widow with two grown daughters, held a lifelong calling to dispatch messages, and in his 70's took on a 400 mile quest to deliver a 10-yr old half-wild orphan girl to her only living family. He was a man of his word yet at the end of this journey, is faced with a difficult moral decision for both him and the girl. What will he do? What will she do?
Captain Kidd and the girl, Johanna, are characters with depth that will long be with me.
Inspired by true-life stories of Caesar Adolphus Kydd, our fictional protagonist Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd experienced the war of 1812 as a young man, the Mexican war as a man in his 50's, became a widow with two grown daughters, held a lifelong calling to dispatch messages, and in his 70's took on a 400 mile quest to deliver a 10-yr old half-wild orphan girl to her only living family. He was a man of his word yet at the end of this journey, is faced with a difficult moral decision for both him and the girl. What will he do? What will she do?
Captain Kidd and the girl, Johanna, are characters with depth that will long be with me.
Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd has fought in three wars, starting with the War of 1812 when he was just barely 16. Now, in 1870, he travels across Texas bringing the inhabitants news of distant places. He reads from newspapers from Philadelphia to India to London, and steers clear of politics as best he can.
On a pass through Northern Texas, he is entrusted with a young girl, recently rescued from the Kiowa, after having been abducted four years earlier. Now ten, Johanna has no real memory of her family, doesn't remember how to speak English, and, if asked, would consider herself a member of the Kiowa nation. But nobody asked her. The Kiowa are giving up all of their captives under threat of raids, and Johanna's remaining family has paid handsomely for her to be shepherded back to their home near San Antonio. It's a long journey (handy maps in the endpapers of the book help the reader follow along) and one fraught with dangers.
The real story though, is what happens between Johanna and the Captain as they travel and begin to feel like family. Unfortunately, Jiles's spare writing style doesn't really do justice to the feelings she wants the reader to understand the characters are feeling.
As for the movie, it is similarly spare, giving it the same overall tone as the book. Several major plot points are changed, for what I'm sure were valid cinematographic reasons, but the overall story arc is the same, and being able to see the expressions on the characters' faces certainly helps in understanding the feelings that Jiles writes into her story.
On a pass through Northern Texas, he is entrusted with a young girl, recently rescued from the Kiowa, after having been abducted four years earlier. Now ten, Johanna has no real memory of her family, doesn't remember how to speak English, and, if asked, would consider herself a member of the Kiowa nation. But nobody asked her. The Kiowa are giving up all of their captives under threat of raids, and Johanna's remaining family has paid handsomely for her to be shepherded back to their home near San Antonio. It's a long journey (handy maps in the endpapers of the book help the reader follow along) and one fraught with dangers.
The real story though, is what happens between Johanna and the Captain as they travel and begin to feel like family. Unfortunately, Jiles's spare writing style doesn't really do justice to the feelings she wants the reader to understand the characters are feeling.
As for the movie, it is similarly spare, giving it the same overall tone as the book. Several major plot points are changed, for what I'm sure were valid cinematographic reasons, but the overall story arc is the same, and being able to see the expressions on the characters' faces certainly helps in understanding the feelings that Jiles writes into her story.
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