Simon the Fiddler - Paulette Jiles

Paulette Jiles came crashing into my reading world in October 2016 when I met her at the San Antonio Book Festival prior to publication (which had been delayed by about six months) of her News of the World, a book that would eventually become a National Book Award finalist. Jiles offered me one of a handful of the uncorrected proofs she had with her that day, and after a ten-minute conversation with her and author John C. Kerr, it was time for me to head back to Houston. Little did I suspect on that drive home that News of the World was about to become one of my all-time favorite books, but it did. And then, we Paulette Jiles fans waited over two years for a new book from her. Simon the Fiddler, published in April 2020, is that book.

“They’d hang a carpenter, a blacksmith, a gambler, or a horse thief but nobody would ever hang a fiddler.”  Lieutenant Jacob Whittaker to Simon Boudlin

It’s March 1865 and the Civil War is all but over. In about a month Robert E. Lee will surrender the bulk of his Confederate Army to Ulysses S. Grant in Virginia, effectively ending the war. But Simon Boudlin is not in Virginia; he’s in Texas – and he’s still trying to avoid being conscripted into the Confederate Army. That would not be easy for most twenty-three-year-olds, but Simon doesn’t look anywhere near his age. He is a small, boyish-looking man, who if he shaves very, very closely, can easily convince people that he is too young to fight for the Confederacy. It’s worked up to now, anyway. Then, following a barroom fight in Victoria, Simon learns that rather than being locked up in jail for his part in the brawl, he is finally being conscripted into the service of the Confederate Army – even if, as it turns out, it is only as part of the regimental band.

Paulette Jiles

Following a completely unnecessary battle, one in which men on both sides of the fight are needlessly killed, Simon and a handful of other musicians are called upon to entertain Confederate and Union officers, and their families, as part of the surrender process. There, Simon spots a beautiful young Irish girl and falls in love with her on the spot. Unfortunately for Simon and Doris, she is indentured to a Union officer as governess to his daughter and is only six months into her three-year contract with the man. Simon is barely able to speak with her before she is off to San Antonio with the officer and his family to complete her years of service.

Simon, though, cannot get Doris out of his mind. He will spend the next two years playing his fiddle all over Texas, trying desperately to become a man of means so that he can someday make Doris his wife. But it won’t be easy for either of them.

Bottom Line: Paulette Jiles writes beautifully about a period of Texas history during which life could still be rather primitive and dangerous for many of the state’s residents. Much of the narrative takes place in Galveston and Houston, two cities that barely resemble the cities they are today. Having lived in Houston for most of my life, I found it intriguing to imagine, even with the place names I recognized, a city so different from the one I have known for the past fifty years. Paulette Jiles made me see and smell that city and others like it. If you are a fan of well-written, solidly-researched historical fiction, Simon the Fiddler is a book you should not miss.

Review Copy provided by Publisher