"To comfort himself and slow down his mind he thought of his time as a courier, a runner, and Maria Luisa and his daughters. Maybe life is just carrying news. Surviving to carry the news. Maybe we have just one message, and it is delivered to us when we are born and we are never sure what it says; it may have nothing to do with us personally but it must be carried by hand through a life, all the way, and at the end handed over, sealed.
The Captain is a 70-something retired soldier and an itinerant reader of the news of the world. He travels around Texas reading to paying audiences. While in Wichita Falls ( North Texas) he is paid to take a 10-year-old girl rescued by the Army from the Kiowa natives back to her aunt and uncle near San Antonio. Johanna Leonberger's parents were killed at the time she was kidnapped and she has been living with the tribe for at least 4 years, long enough to forget her name, the English language and to feel the Kiowa are her only family. She presents quite a challenge for a while until Cho-henna learns to trust the Kep-dun.
In A Note from the Author, one learns that according to historical records, people taken captive by the natives "became Indian in every way and rarely readjusted when returned to their non-native families. They always wished to return to their adoptive families, even when they had been with their Indian families for less than a year." I found this intriguing.
The author provides a map of the journey which is treacherous with rivers to cross and bad guys to avoid. So the plot is exciting in parts but with some doses of humor along the way. Example: The Captain describes his deceased son-in-law as "too big to be a human being and too small to be a locomotive." In another instance someone describes a couple of brothers who might cause trouble as both "one brick short of a load." Often Johanna's pronunciations of English words would make me smile.
I loved the ending which I shall not reveal. Perhaps you can predict it. I rate the book a 5.
A film version of "News of the World" will have a Christmas release. It stars Tom Hanks as the Captain. I can hardly wait to see it!
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We had 17 members at our Zoom meeting, including one new person. News of the World was well-liked with almost all ratings either 4 or 5. One participant said she would have liked to give it a 6! Our average was 4.3 making it the second highest of the year's 11 books.
A number of folks enjoyed the humor, as I did. Most agreed the main characters were likeable and the ending was quite satisfying.
I showed a trailer of the film version and several showed an interest in seeing it together, if possible. I am trying to include the link here.
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