Simon the Fiddler

A Novel

De: Paulette Jiles

Narrado por: Grover Gardner

Simon the Fiddler has descriptive copy which is not yet available from the Publisher.

Disappointing

I loved News of the World and was very much looking forward to this follow-up ( Jefferson Kidd make a short appearance). The prose is lovely, as well as having well- developed characters, but it was just too long. The narrative goes on and on with all that lovely prose, but the actual story is very scant. Grover Gardner is a fine narrator.

Good Solid Story

This is not the genre I typically choose. I prefer a little more action and excitement in my stories. But I still enjoyed it. The narrator was great and the story was just a good old fashioned tale. It less about the events and more about the characters, which was refreshing.

Marty B. Hudson, Ohio

Our book group read News of the Workd by Jikes and I loved it! So when I saw she had a new book I was eager to read it. Ended up listening instead. This too was a wonderful story.
This story is really about one young man. He has been through difficult changes in his life and finds himself in the Southwest at the end of the Civil War. By now he has made decisions as to what he wants in life. It is a time of hard work and years to get what he wants. But he is wonderfully true to himself with many other characters around him. I thought it was wonderful and listening made it better especially when the fiddle which would play throughout the book. I will always keep an eye out for her books!

Old Timey Tale

No high tension scenes but an interesting tale of post Civil War times and ways. Characters were well developed and the descriptions made for good visuals in the reader’s mind. The plot and story were straight through with little twist nor subplot and that was a weakness. The story was appropriate for all ages.

Mixed reviews

I found the storyline intriguing but lacking. The author goes into great detail to include all of the names of songs Simon and his group played and practiced. She also goes into great detail to include a lot of musical vocabulary. Because of the inordinate amount of this “over-information”, I felt that I was listening to someone who knew too much and had to tell everyone everything to show how much they knew. It seemed that there were pages of narration listing the songs, in order, that the fiddler and his troupe played and practiced (and they played and practiced A LOT). To someone who doesn’t know these old-time songs, I did not feel that they helped to set the mood and emotion for the event for which they were playing and often found myself fast forwarding through that part of the story. The love story between Simon and Doris is heartwarming, and the struggles they went through just to be together were well-written.