The Color of Lightning

by: Paulette Jiles

Published by: William Morrow

Reviewed by Julie Failla Earhart

As the American Civil War near its conclusion, a free man of color–Britt Johnson–and his family head for Texas. Joining them are other free people of color. The hardscrabble life on the plains and battling Indians has to be better than the constant looking-over-the-shoulder feeling they endured in Kentucky. Such is the premise of Paulette Jiles’ latest novel, The Color of Lightning.

Not long after the Johnsons arrive at Elm Creek, the men are in another town buying supplies when a force of seven hundred Comanche and Kiowa pour into the area, slaughtering or capturing the women and children. Britt’s wife, Mary, and two of his three children are taken captives. One child is killed.

I was excited to be selected to read this novel. The backbone of the story is true. There really was a Britt Johnson who went to west with his family, who were captured by the Indians. Britt, in his hardheaded manner, went to get them back.

It didn’t take me long to be disappointed in this work. The original story is interesting, but Jiles’ writing of it leaves a lot of be desired. The first half to one third of the book features the Johnsons being taken deep into Indian county. It seemed that every page had a minimum of two variations of the same sentence: “Then they went on.” The repetitive style did not work; I found it annoying. Also, many times narrative summaries were used when Jiles should have showed the reader what was happening. For me, this kept me at arm’s length of caring for the characters.

The last half to two thirds of the story evened out, but still Jiles’ use of fragments and incomplete sentences showed more of a lack of true expertise than talent. Many times, I found myself re-reading entire paragraphs, trying to understand what she was saying. Some of the descriptions of the Texas landscape and most of the Indian descriptions in The Color of Lightning were well done. And there were just enough of them to keep me reading until the end.

Armchair Interviews says: Heed this reviewer’s comments.