First let me say that this is an extraordinary book. The writing is masterful. The characters are colorful and the sense of who they are is right on. This book is a collection of first person vignettes about the legend of a person named E.J. Watson who settled along the southern gulf coast of Florida around the turn of the 20th century to become a wealthy planter. Depending on who's telling the story, he was either a saint who helped his neighbors or the devil who was ruthless and who pretty much got everything he wanted by fear, intimidation, and (probably) murder. The book was revised by the author to shorten the original three books to a single three part book of over 800 pages. Therein lies the problem with my appreciation as I struggled to finish the first part at the end of which Watson receives his comeupance. it was hard to imagine how the author could come up with 600 more pages to describe how Watson got his reputation. While each vignette was extremely interesting in describing how Watson got his reputation, I quickly lost count and track of who all the various story tellers were and how they were related so that each one seemed to be disconnected, even though I could see that they were supposed to be related. It would have been helpful to have a family tree kind of listing for who all the characters were and how they were related.
It is difficult to rate this book because I can see how it could be either a 2 or a 5 depending on how patient and determined the reader is in keeping track of who each story teller is and reading episope after episode about how he got the reputations that were his legend. I'll simply say I was impressed by the quality of writing but didn't love it enough to concentrate my way through all three parts.