“The greatest pride of
the Kiowa was to do without, to make use of anything at hand; they were almost
vain of their ability to go without water, food, and shelter. Life was not safe
and nothing could make it so, neither fashionable dresses nor bank accounts.
The baseline of human life was courage.”
A simply
gorgeous novel filled with one affecting episode after another. I offer no more
plot spoilers than one may find on the inside of the book jacket.
Post-Civil
War, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, travels the towns of northern Texas where he reads
from newspapers for donations to a news-starved populace. Newspapers being a
scarce commodity he draws quite a crowd.
He is approached
to return a young girl who had been a Kiowa captive to her family. And there
our journey begins, this old man and this odd young girl who is not quite of either
civilization.
“Her gestures and expressions were not
those of white people and he knew they never would be. She stared intently when
something interested her, her questions were forthright and often embarrassing.”
As we follow
their trail we grow to love both characters fiercely. We watch them mistrust and
attempt to understand one another. I will offer no more than that I envy the
reader who has yet to encounter this novel.
Well, one
more thing, if Mr. Jeff Bridges or Mr. Tommy Lee Jones would be so kind as to snatch
this gem of a book up and render it into a film I’d be much obliged.
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