News of the World

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/