The descriptions of how Simon feels about his music are beautiful. I couldn’t help but me moved by his passion for music, his hopes and dreams for the future and his optimism that he would realize those dreams. He becomes even more determined to fulfill his dreams and Doris becomes a part of those dreams. Before they begin traveling, Simon meets Doris, a young Irish girl, indentured to a cruel Yankee officer and his family. It is here that he meets up with a “rag tag” group of other musicians and they take to the road, playing their music along the way. Simon is a young man from Kentucky who travels around playing his music, trying to avoid conscription into the Confederate Army, until he finally is caught in Texas near the very end of the war. With this novel, I am once again inspired to get to the others that I haven’t yet read because I found the writing here to be lovely and the characters wonderful, even though it took a while for me to connect with them. I’ve been remiss since I read it by not reading more by Paulette Jiles. News of the World is one of my favorite books.
But Simon cannot forget the fair Irish maiden, and vows that someday he will find her again. There the fiddler can’t help but notice Doris Mary Dillon, an indentured girl from Ireland, who is governess to a Union colonel’s daughter.Īfter the surrender, Simon and Doris go their separate ways. Weeks later, on the eve of the Confederate surrender, Simon and his bandmates are called to play for officers and their families from both sides of the conflict. Luckily his talent with a fiddle gets him a comparatively easy position in a regimental band. Till now, twenty-three-year-old Simon Boudlin has evaded military duty but following a barroom brawl in Victoria, Texas, Simon finds himself conscripted into the Confederate Army. In March 1865, the long and bitter War between the States is winding down.
This story is set at the end of the Civil War, about an itinerant fiddle player, a ragtag band of musicians with whom he travels trying to make a living, and the charming young Irish lass who steals his heart.
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