Interviews
Barnes & Noble Review Interview with Paulette Jiles
In the National Book Award finalist News of the World,
elderly, genteel Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, a former soldier and
onetime printer, makes his living traveling through
post–Civil War Texas with a sheaf of newspapers, reading
for dimes to audiences hungry for outside news.
The former Johanna Leonberger, a ten-year-old German girl taken
captive by the Kiowa in a brutal raid, is now by all measures
Kiowa herself. She's traded back for four blankets and a set of
silver only when the encroaching U.S. Army threatens violence if
all captives are not returned. When an aunt and uncle offer a $50
gold piece for Johanna's safe return, Captain Kidd reluctantly takes
the job.
Their uneasy alliance is also a portrait of the American West -- a
singular creation, born of a cataclysm. It's familiar territory for
Jiles, whose novel The Color of Lightning tells the story of
real-life cowboy and Texas freighter Britt Johnson, the former
slave who rescued his own family from the Kiowa, then went on to
retrieve other captives. Johnson makes a brief appearance in the
novel -- an old friend, he's the one who asks Kidd to take the
job.
I spoke with Paulette Jiles about Britt Johnson's legacy,
researching antique rifles on YouTube, and quotation marks in
British novels. --Lizzie Skurnick
The Barnes & Noble Review: I'm fascinated by the notion
that children who are taken captive turn into Indians. What are
your thoughts about how the changeover occurred?
Paulette Jiles: Did you read Scott Zesch's The
Captured? What he pointed out is that many of these captives
were really lost, because by the time they grew up and matured,
especially the men, into warriors, the Comanche were confined to
the reservation, so that whole wonderful, free life of chasing the
buffalo was finished.
BNR: Where did you learn the Kiowa songs -- for
instance, the Kiowa song Johanna sings when she walks alongside
the wagon?
PJ: There's a wonderful book called Remember We
Are Kiowa, which included many phrases, many stories,
including the one about the cicada singing. And on the
International Language Institutes site, they have sample tapes from
different languages all over the world. I thought, "Oh, can I just get
lucky here?"
BNR: In Johanna's case, she goes from hostile to having
a sense of humor.
PJ: You have to remember that gunfight scene is seminal.
She's a fighter herself, and the two of them bond, so she's more
willing to relearn Western, civilized ways.
BNR: And to not scalp. Speaking of which, how did you
research the guns in that scene?
PJ: I live out in the country by myself, and I have an old
Mossberg .20 gauge bolt action. I keep it for varmints. That's why I
gave the Captain a .20 gauge. I'm not even sure they had a bolt
action in 1870. I think it would have been sort of a lever, then you
load the . . . you know what I am talking about?
BNR: You might as well be speaking Kiowa.
PJ: Have I lost you? I looked up "Antique 20 gauge
shotgun" on YouTube. One of the videos was a bunch of young
guys out in a dump, shooting at old televisions and microwaves,
seeing what kinds of things they could stuff down into a .20 gauge
shell. They just blew this microwave apart with frozen gummy
bears. And one of them said, "A U.S. dime is the only coin that
will fit into a .20 gauge shell."
BNR: I am fascinated on how much research you did on
the Internet with this. Was the bulk of your research on the
Internet?
PJ: With the exception of the captive narratives.
BNR: I pictured you'd have a library of books for each
work.
PJ: You look for what you need. So when [Kidd] buys a
wagon to go south, he's been carrying a pack pony with him, but he
can't do that with a small girl, so he has to get a wagon. I don't
want a covered wagon, first of all because it would be too large,
and he would need a four-horse team. So I went through images
and found a little excursion wagon.
BNR: I had never heard of the job of a newsreader. How
did you choose that role for him?
PJ: The husband of a friend mentioned that his great-
grandfather was a newsreader. I put him into The Color of
Lightning, but he was too good a character to just leave, and I
thought, this person deserves a book to himself.
BNR: That brings us to Britt Johnson. Can you tell me
about how you came across him?
PJ: I was considering a sequel to Enemy Women,
and I came across the famous Elm Creek Raid of 1863, involving
Britt Johnson. He was a true hero and very brave. He rescued his
wife and two children, and no one knows how he did it. Apparently
they used his story as the basis for The Searchers, only they
changed him to a white man, and changed his wife, daughter, and
son to a niece.
BNR: What's the difference between poetry and prose for
you, as a writer?
PJ: The basic unit of poetry is a phrase, and the basic unit
of prose is supposed to be a sentence. So I had a long training in
sounds, and searching out exactly the right word, and not being
content with a word that was halfway okay. Nor could I be content
with an awkward rhythm.
BNR: There's a technical question I like to ask authors of
westerns. Often, you don't use quotation marks around dialogue. Is
that a deliberate choice?
PJ: In older British novels, they use dash lines. I really
like that a lot. And when I picked up Cormac McCarthy, who
simply threw them away, I thought, "That's so daring." So I did
that for Enemy Women. I received so many complaints. I
put them back in for Color of Lightning, chicken that I am.
Now I'm reading some of the reviews on Goodreads, complaining
about it. So I went to Cormac McCarthy, The Road, All the
Pretty Horses. Not one complaint.
BNR: I'm not sure if you realize, but this book is a heart-
stopping experience. I was going to kill you if something bad
happened to Johanna.
PJ: You were going to come to Utopia and find me?
BNR: Exactly. Because obviously, The Color of
Lightning does not have a happy ending.
PJ: I had a friend here in Utopia who told me, "Please,
please don't tell me Britt gets killed.” Sorry. I can't help it.
It was a real person.
BNR: Was it a choice to make News of the
World such a happy book?
PJ: The fashion has been in literary fiction for the
depressing ending, and for more or less passive characters who
have terrible things happen to them. The ending is sort of out of
defiance. Kidd is a strong character and very intelligent. He was a
man of honor. He was going to help her and protect her no matter
what. So why not have a happy ending? Is there a law?
--December 9, 2016
