News of the World

DNF at page 100 bc I am a hater apparently. Sentences were choppy, no punctuation, and I am not super into adventure stories.

“Human aggression and depravity still managed to astonish him.”

Captain Kidd, a retired Army soldier, now travels the late-1800s western United States delivering news from handpicked newspapers to small towns and small cities looking for glimpses at a world they'll never see. While on one of these stops, he's tasked with returning “Johanna” to blood relatives living in south Texas. “Johanna” was captured by Kiowa raiders when very young, and then ransomed back to the US Army. She remembers nothing of the world she was captured from, and initially wants only to be returned to the only family she's known. Captain Kidd agrees to take her, and we're brought along on their journey of unlikely friendship and musings about belonging and identity to her Texas family.

This was a super sweet book with a super sweet premise that I thought I'd find boring because I don't normally do super sweet fluffy books. The writing was phenomenal though, and my heart went out to this young girl grappling with large concepts of trying to figure out where she fits into the two worlds that don't seem to want her. I ended up really enjoying the journey this book took me on, and I especially loved the “where we all ended up” style ending that I know isn't everyone's taste.

There's also evidently a movie that was made for this book back in 2020 that I missed (for, I guess, obvious reasons), that I might even check out.

The lack of quotation marks and dialogue indicators was jarring and a distraction at first (so much re-reading) and something I learned to work around (less rereading...but I was still re-reading). It was distracting enough that if this had been a longer story I would have bailed within the first 75 pages, and that would have been unfortunate - because ultimately I really liked the story. I did not find the shifting points of view too distracting. And...I really shouldn't have to be discussing the structure of the story telling this much...

So - short book...long read, but ultimately I liked it. I enjoyed the dry humor and descriptions.

News of the World is a very good book. Paulette Jiles knows how to tell a story. Captain Kidd is now one of my favorite characters ever. I wish I could share some beer and conversation with him. And I just want to give Johanna a hug.

Reconstruction era Texas in 1870 was not a safe place. Outlaws, Kiowa and Comanche raiders, and various bandits make life perilous for travelers. In this place/time Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, an itinerant news reader, takes on the task of returning a ten-year-old girl who has lived with the Kiowa for several years to her nearest relatives. A journey of several hundred miles. Suffice to say the Captain and Johanna have many adventures and they slowly come to know and trust each other as they make the perilous journey.

The only drawback to the book for me is the complete lack of quotes in the text, which made it difficult for me to tell speech from introspection at times.

Great story. 4.5 stars rounded up.

I this this might be the rare book that would be better as a movie. Storyline was excellent, language/writing was spare and the actors could give it so much.

Absolutely sublime. A really powerful story set in 1870s Texas about an ageing Captain tasked to take a little girl, raised by the Kiowa, back to her birth family and the bond they begin to share on the long journey. Jiles' writing transports you and you'll wish it was longer than 200 pages. I'd give it 6/5 if I could; it's just that good!

News of the World is a story about the way two very different people can change one another. It's a simple story—in fact, an old and familiar one—about a young girl who was captured by a Native American tribe and now is being forced to return to her old life. There's nothing new or surprising about this story, but it is told with such care and attention to details that the too familiar story has been given a fresh coat of paint.

The best part of this story is perhaps the details of Captain Kidd, a very old man who travels the country reading newspapers at public gatherings. It's such a fun idea for a character, giving readers a unique view of the time and steering far from the expected chaperone—an army general or a sheriff.

I'm a little surprised that this book was a National Book Award finalist. It's good. It's entertaining. But it never struck me as something particularly special. It's definitely one I would recommend to anyone looking for a fairly light, historical novel.

Wish I could give this 100 stars. Can't wait to see Tom Hanks play the lead role! Must read!

It took me a bit to get into this book but it was so great when I did. It was delightful, her descriptions of the captive girl's view of the contemporary life and how strange it is through her eyes so precise and insightful.

Interesting historical fiction about a young German immigrant girl captured by the Kiowa and then sold back after a few years. The story is about her long travel through Texas with an older man, Capt. Jefferson Kyle Kidd, who aims to return her to whatever relatives are left. Time is 1870, shortly after the end of the Civil War, with Texas in a tumultuous state. 2016 National Book Award nominee. The author was a poet prior to the publication of this novel and the imagery is vivid and engaging.

News of the World is a Western set around 1870 in the south of the US. It tells the absolutely charming adventures of old grizzly veteran Captain Kidd, who makes his living by reading newspaper articles of far-away places to his audience, and wild 10 year old Johanna, who had spent the last 4 years living with the Kiowa tribe after they had violently slaughtered her family and kept her to raise her as their own.

Their journey together is engaging and adventurous and ultimately successful (and obviously they are already planning the movie) while also balanced with the right amount of heartfelt sadness about the distressing and curious fate of children whose life was uprooted and reprogrammed multiple times within their childhood.

Very much enjoyed Jiles' flow of storytelling, of seamlessly and fluidly weaving narration and dialogue and thoughts together. And you simply can't not love the at first reluctant yet then more and more attached heroic duo of the novel.

Enjoyable read with interesting characters and setting. From the start of the book I couldn't wait to see how the story ended. Recommended for lovers of historical and literary fiction.

Short Review: This is an enjoyable short read. It will be compared to True Grit because of the vague similarities in story. But the prose is more like Cormac McCarthy (but far less depressing). I think it was over hyped to me. Because I enjoyed it, but didn't think it was a particularly unique or groundbreaking story. It was much better than some others books I could have read. So that part I am happy about. I still very much recommend it. But I think it is a better book with less expectations.

The audiobook was by Grover Gardner and that was a good choice of narrators for the story.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/news-of-the-world/

The News of the World was a satisfying read. The plot is the story of an elderly veteran of several wars who takes on the difficult task of returning a ten-year-old girl to her family after being captured by and spending many years with a Native American tribe. I loved traveling through post-Civil War Texas with those two, and I loved the relationship that developed between them.

At first, I was really unsure about the author's writing style. She uses a unique style without quotation marks – dialogue is just right in the paragraph. Here's an example:

“She's gone and it's my fault! Simon slapped himself on the thigh. It made a wet smack. Captain, I am so sorry!
He had to shout over the noise of the rain. He gripped his hat brim and ran alongside the Captain.
Never mind! the Captain shouted back. Can't be helped!”

It definitely took some time to get used to. Even at the end, I still wasn't sure I liked it. The overall story, though, I fell in love with! It's beautiful at times, and this really odd relationship ends up just being really fun to watch. I loved seeing Johanna begin to trust the Captain inch by inch, and he cares about her more inch by inch...I became really invested in their relationship, and loved all of the details.

Jiles's writing is also really gorgeous. I found this passage especially moving:

“She put down the doll and shouted at the Indians with her hands around her mouth. What could she possibly think would happen? That they would come for her? She was shouting for her mother, for her father and her sisters and brothers for the life on the Plains, traveling wherever the buffalo took them, she was calling for her people who followed water, lived with every contingency, were brave in the face of enemies, who could go without food or water or money or shoes or hats and did not care that they had neither mattresses nor chairs nor oil lamps. They stood and stared across the water at her like creatures of the sidhe, wet and shining in every flash from overhead.”

Overall, I thought the story was really well done, and painted a vivid picture in my head of the landscape and the complexities and violence of the relationship between settlers and Indian tribes, but above all, this unlikely and heart-warming relationship that forms between this man of the old world and this girl wrenched from everything she knows. This is a recommended read from me!

Read the full review here: http://www.literaryquicksand.com/2016/10/review-news-world/