“May a cat eat him and may the devil eat the cat.”

The mountain has eyes. Walking the Postmans Track, Rocky Cape National Park, Tasmania. January 2021.

Paulette Jiles works magic with her writing. Much like the marvellous News of the World, the story within Simon the Fiddler flows like molasses from a spoon. Despite moments of violence and hardship, and its Civil War setting, this is a surprisingly gentle book.

Given the centrality of music – we follow Simon and his companion musicians through Texas at the tail end of the war and immediate years of the Reconstruction – the text's lyrical beauty is unsurprising. While Simon himself is hot-tempered and ill-suited to company, he is no misanthrope, and I found myself warming to him as the story progressed.

Much as life, the journey is a meandering and unpredictable one. Trials and tribulations abound, love is sighted and perused, sadness and grief felt, and the converted goal of just being left alone to play music and carve out a life always seems a ways away.

Jiles constructs a Texas under military law vividly to the reader. The heat, danger and opportunity are rich on every page. The central love story struck me as sweet and worthy, resembling the folk tales of virtuous maidens trapped behind high walls.

It strikes me as unfair to compare the tale of Simon Boudlin with News of the World, as many have done. Yes, this is the lessor book, but most books are indeed inferior to that one, so one must treat it on its own merits. Simon the Fiddler is indeed more old-fashioned and sentimental in tone, but one should expect that in what is ultimately a love story.

As the story approaches the necessary climax, in which Simon’s temper and the injustice of the periods must inevitably collide, I was not let down by the conclusion. The subtle nod to the News of the World was appreciated, and it warmed my heart to feel that these stories exist within the same universe.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

Comments

Hold me now, oh hold me now, until this hour has gone around. And I'm gone on the rising tide, to face Van Dieman's Land

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Something unpleasant is coming when men are anxious to tell the truth.

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But when the strong were too weak to hurt the weak, the weak had to be strong enough to leave.

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This will hurt me...

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