![]() ![]() "He loved information," writes Jiles, and so did his audiences. Kidd drifts from town to town in North Texas, where at night he changes into his "reading clothes," and gives public readings from newspapers for a dime per person. In our own day, when news ricochets around the world in seconds, he has a most interesting vocation as a news reader. ![]() He's a wizened and tender man, given to philosophic reflection at the age of seventy-two. He had experienced three wars - the War of 1812 when he was sixteen years old, then the War with Mexico, and the Civil War just ended. The protagonist of her story, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, is an old widower when we meet him. Texas is a place of anarchy, and under military rule. Paulette Jiles's historical novel is set in 1870, in the devastating aftermath of the War Between the States. We call it the Wild West, and for good reason. Paulette Jiles, News of the World: A Novel (New York: William Morrow, 2016), 209pp. ![]()
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