In ‘News of the World,’ Unexpected Growth on a Texan Journey

Paulette Jiles’s latest piece cements her talent as a writer of historical fiction. “News of the World,” recently announced as a 2016 National Book Award finalist, is a delicately written lyrical ballad. This is no surprise, given Jiles’s prior work as a poet. Each word is chosen carefully, and despite the simplistic plot of the novel, Jiles manages to fashion a complex, sympathetic, and penetratingly honest account of her two main characters.

The plot of “News of the World” is by no means groundbreaking. The aged Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, a traveling news reader in late 19th-century Texas, is tasked with bringing a white girl back to her extended family in San Antonio. The girl, Johanna, has been recaptured from the Kiowa Indians who kidnapped her and killed her parents years earlier. Now, with a language barrier and little trust between the odd pair, the Captain and Johanna must make their way through the nearly 500-mile journey to return her to her aunt and uncle. It is a story that has undoubtedly been told multiple times: Among others, Charles Portis’s “True Grit” shares a similar plot about an older man-younger girl friendship, and Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road” has the same long journey-based story. But it is Jiles’ writing that makes “News of the World” shine above the rest.

The novel takes place in 1870, following the passage of the 15th Amendment in a Confederate state soon after the Civil War. The Captain’s primary story is thus delivering the news of the passage of the amendment and the amendment’s unforeseen consequences: “Let us have no vaporings or girlish shrieks,” he says after conveying the news that African-Americans can now vote. Jiles manages the historical context of her story with finesse: The context of the post-Civil War era is present in the book, but the setting does not overcrowd Jiles’s characters or the incredibly strong narrative. Ultimately, the balance between history and fiction exemplifies the novel’s overall success.

As in Jiles’s previous work on orphan psychology in “Lighthouse Island,” “News of the World” contains an incredibly well-researched younger character. Jiles certainly uses a high level of detail in portraying the psychology of children “adopted” by Native Americans, and Johanna’s character directly speaks to Jiles’s studies. Johanna herself is an enigma, a paradox of emotion and determined resolve, a child and an adult, a Kiowa Indian and a white girl. Captain jokingly lists rules for her: “One, don’t scalp anybody. Two, do not eat with your hands.” His tone is light, but clear gravitas underlines his view of Johanna’s potential for “Indian savagery”. Yet Jiles’ novel also demonstrates Johanna’s growth from this previous characterization. She is initially described as “A redheaded stepchild destined for the washhouse,” a living stain on civilized white society. “News of the World” is a story of her integration first with Captain and her natural surroundings, then with the travelers that they pass on their way.

The book is ultimately a successful exploration of old age and resolving differences. Most noticeably, the cultural gap between Captain and Johanna narrows as the two adopt a shared language, customs, and familiarities with each other. An eventual grandfather-granddaughter relation forms along their journey, evident in the care and investment each of them have for the other. The novel speaks volumes about the passing of time: Both the narrative voice of the book and Captain himself grow wearier as his journey progresses, and by the time he reaches San Antonio, there are already signs of mass printing of newspapers indicating the end of his career.