Community Reviews
I had not intended to read this book in practically one sitting, but I challenge anyone to start this book and be able to put it down. It is a lovely, charming, jewel of a book. What a great way to end my 2016 reading.
Captain Kidd is in his "golden years", left a widower with two grown daughters and grandchildren. He's a bit restless, still on the road and not quite ready to settle just yet. He travels Texas offering readings of the news. People pay to hear him recite the news of the country and the world at large for various reasons-- some just like the social aspect of gathering with a group to hear the news, some are illiterate and incapable of reading the news themselves. Whatever their own personal reason, people gather for a dime a piece to hear Captain Kidd read.
While Captain is in Wichita Falls, he is approached with the request that he take a young captive and return her to her family. Young Johanna was taken captive at the age of six by the Kiowa after they had killed her parents and little sister, and adopted by a Kiowa couple. She was raised by Turning Water and Three Spotted as their own for four years, until the Kiowa decided that it was too dangerous for them to keep a captive white girl when there are soldiers always looking for a reason to battle. So she was traded back to the whites at the age of ten, finding herself surrounded by strangers she doesn't know or understand, frightened and confused and yearning to return to the only family she knows.
The Captain agrees to transport her back to her family, and so begins their three-week journey to San Antonio. Along the way they fight battles, both literal and figurative, with small victories occurring at every turn. Every smile and every English word is a victory, but as time goes on every step of the hoof and turn of the wagon wheel brings them closer to separation.
When trying to think of how this book made me feel, the word that came to mind was "wistful". Yes, "wistful", yearning, longing. You feel for this little girl who was ripped from the only family she seems to remember, the only life she knows, and given to a stranger to return her to people she doesn't know and info forced assimilation. You feel for the Captain, separated from his family who are living lives of their own, he himself alone in the world.
The author's writing is a bit like the wagon journey they are on-- slow, steady, and gets the story where it's going. It's not overly laden with flourish, nor overly emotional or descriptive, yet effective. Her characters are well formed and relatable.
My final word: This is one of those sweet and gentle reads, and at 200 pages, it's a fast read as well. There are moments of tragedy and heartbreak, but for the most part it is a sweet story as this old man wandering at the end of his life falls in with a young girl who is lost and seeking the nomadic yet grounded life she has known. The two of them turn out to be quite well-suited for one another, and the Captain will become more to this little girl than anyone ever expected. This is a good rainy-day read, to sit curled up with on a gray and overcast rainy or snowy day.
While Captain is in Wichita Falls, he is approached with the request that he take a young captive and return her to her family. Young Johanna was taken captive at the age of six by the Kiowa after they had killed her parents and little sister, and adopted by a Kiowa couple. She was raised by Turning Water and Three Spotted as their own for four years, until the Kiowa decided that it was too dangerous for them to keep a captive white girl when there are soldiers always looking for a reason to battle. So she was traded back to the whites at the age of ten, finding herself surrounded by strangers she doesn't know or understand, frightened and confused and yearning to return to the only family she knows.
The Captain agrees to transport her back to her family, and so begins their three-week journey to San Antonio. Along the way they fight battles, both literal and figurative, with small victories occurring at every turn. Every smile and every English word is a victory, but as time goes on every step of the hoof and turn of the wagon wheel brings them closer to separation.
When trying to think of how this book made me feel, the word that came to mind was "wistful". Yes, "wistful", yearning, longing. You feel for this little girl who was ripped from the only family she seems to remember, the only life she knows, and given to a stranger to return her to people she doesn't know and info forced assimilation. You feel for the Captain, separated from his family who are living lives of their own, he himself alone in the world.
The author's writing is a bit like the wagon journey they are on-- slow, steady, and gets the story where it's going. It's not overly laden with flourish, nor overly emotional or descriptive, yet effective. Her characters are well formed and relatable.
My final word: This is one of those sweet and gentle reads, and at 200 pages, it's a fast read as well. There are moments of tragedy and heartbreak, but for the most part it is a sweet story as this old man wandering at the end of his life falls in with a young girl who is lost and seeking the nomadic yet grounded life she has known. The two of them turn out to be quite well-suited for one another, and the Captain will become more to this little girl than anyone ever expected. This is a good rainy-day read, to sit curled up with on a gray and overcast rainy or snowy day.
thenextgoodbook.com
News of The World by Paulette Jiles
209 pages
What’s it about?
This story takes place in Texas, after the close of the Civil War. 71 year-old Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd is drifting through North Texas reading the news of the world to groups of locals for money. One day he is offered a 50 dollar gold piece to return a 10 year-old white girl, who has been rescued from the Kiowa Indians, back to her aunt and uncle near San Antonio. Against his better judgment, but worried for the young girl’s safety, he decides to take the girl back to her relatives.
What did I think?
Captain Kidd is such a great character! Two novels in a row that have strong male characters whose integrity is challenged by their circumstances. Captain Kidd is living in a hard time, and this novel is filled with hard characters. Ms. Jiles does a wonderful job of conveying the hard-scrabble life in Texas after the war. I enjoyed “Enemy Women” years ago, so I had high hope for “News of the World”. I was not disappointed.
Should you read it?
This book is perfect for anyone with an interest in historical fiction. The long term impact on settlers of being captured by Indians is again explored by Ms. Jiles. It was a really interesting time in history, and it made for a very interesting book.
Quote-
“At the age he had attained with his life span short before him he had begun to look upon the human world with the indifference of a condemned man. Who cares for your fashions and your wars and your causes? I will shortly be gone and I have seen many fashions come and go and many causes so passionately defended only to be forgotten. But now it was different and he was drawn back into the stream of being because their was once again life in his hands. Things mattered.”
If you like this try-
Last Bus to Wisdom by Ivan Doig
The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson
Frog Music by Emma Donaghue
The Sisters' Brothers by Patrick DeWitt
News of The World by Paulette Jiles
209 pages
What’s it about?
This story takes place in Texas, after the close of the Civil War. 71 year-old Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd is drifting through North Texas reading the news of the world to groups of locals for money. One day he is offered a 50 dollar gold piece to return a 10 year-old white girl, who has been rescued from the Kiowa Indians, back to her aunt and uncle near San Antonio. Against his better judgment, but worried for the young girl’s safety, he decides to take the girl back to her relatives.
What did I think?
Captain Kidd is such a great character! Two novels in a row that have strong male characters whose integrity is challenged by their circumstances. Captain Kidd is living in a hard time, and this novel is filled with hard characters. Ms. Jiles does a wonderful job of conveying the hard-scrabble life in Texas after the war. I enjoyed “Enemy Women” years ago, so I had high hope for “News of the World”. I was not disappointed.
Should you read it?
This book is perfect for anyone with an interest in historical fiction. The long term impact on settlers of being captured by Indians is again explored by Ms. Jiles. It was a really interesting time in history, and it made for a very interesting book.
Quote-
“At the age he had attained with his life span short before him he had begun to look upon the human world with the indifference of a condemned man. Who cares for your fashions and your wars and your causes? I will shortly be gone and I have seen many fashions come and go and many causes so passionately defended only to be forgotten. But now it was different and he was drawn back into the stream of being because their was once again life in his hands. Things mattered.”
If you like this try-
Last Bus to Wisdom by Ivan Doig
The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson
Frog Music by Emma Donaghue
The Sisters' Brothers by Patrick DeWitt
I really loved this book. There’s something quietly powerful about Captain Kidd traveling from town to town just reading the news, it reminds me how hungry people have always been for connection and stories. In a way, it’s not that different from someone looking up the citizen phone number https://pissedconsumer.com/company/the-citizen/customer-service.html today just to feel informed or reach out for clarity. The bond that slowly forms between Kidd and Johanna felt so real to me. It’s gentle, thoughtful, and full of heart without being over the top. Definitely one of those short novels that stays with you long after the last page.
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