Book Review: The Wild Girl : The Notebooks of Ned Giles, 1932

The Wild Girl : The Notebooks of Ned Giles, 1932 Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
Jim Fergus
Class/Genre: Fiction Western Native American Historical Adventure
Hyperion

Several actual tragedies occuring in the American Southwest provide the background for this historical novel. Around the turn of the century, a homesteading family was returning from a Sunday outing when their wagon was attacked, the parents killed. Their young son was never found and presumed kidnapped. About 40 years later, a young Mexican boy from a wealthy family was kidnapped by Apache warriors, and efforts to recapture him failed. And in 1932 a young Apache woman was kidnapped by a big game hunter. Her captor found her to be cunning and fierce, and after he was unable to subdue her he brought her to a small local jail where she was confined for several days until she pined away to her death, refusing food and water. During her imprisonment she was displayed like a wild animal, with locals paying the local sheriff a fee to observe her curled on the floor of her cell.

Drawing on unconfirmed legends that the boy who disappeared after the murder of his parents was taken into an Apache community and raised by them as an Apache warrior, Fergus has constructed a totally absorbing "what if" scenario and a thrilling adventure story. Like the best adventure stories, Fergus presents real people with real strengths and weaknesses.

The fictional narrator, Ned Giles, is an aspiring photographer. In 1932, after his parents die within months of each other leaving him without means of support in the early years of the depression, the teenager takes off for the Southwest to join an expedition planned to recover the young Mexican boy. He stumbles upon the drama of the captured Apache woman - and Fergus has set the stage for a real page turner, as well as a unique coming-of-age story.

Fergus has included an impressive three page bibliography at the conclusion of this novel, documenting the research he did into the Apache way of life in the early years of the last century. His story rings true, and contains enough action, adventure, romance, loss, regret, and hard earned understanding to provide a marvelous reading experience.

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