I just did not get it....I mean I tried really I did. But I came up lacking. I believe my biggest problem was the way it was written. I think that the important parts of book three could have been incorporated into books 1 and 2. For me, there was just way too much repetition. Having said that if I were to rate based on the three individual books, I would have given book 1 3 stars Book 2 most likely would have gotten 3 as well, but the third was just ......meh so that would have been a 2.

I did enjoy reading some of the early history of Florida and "the glades". Learning about quit claims and plume hunting was very interesting, Well the plume hunting was a bit disturbing, especially the scene in book 1 where they went into detail about how most plume hunters worked. The treatment of the Indians, Blacks and mixed races bothered me as well, but since history tells us it was all true it did not shock me , just saddened me. By reading you can totally see that Mr Matthiessen is an environmentalist, just by the way he points out several times how they diminished whole gaggles of plume birds , fish and gators.

I believe that of all 3 books my favorite would have had to have been the second, with the son trying to find out what went so wrong and how his long lost brother fit into things. On the whole I am glad I read this one ...but I don't really see any more of this author's works being added to my TBR pile for quite some time.....if ever.