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Shadow Country Trilogy #1
Killing Mr. Watson
Book by Matthiessen, Peter
Open Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
306 people are currently reading
2054 people want to read
About the author
Peter Matthiessen
144 books917 followersPeter Matthiessen is the author of more than thirty books and the only writer to win the National Book Award for both non-fiction (The Snow Leopard, in two categories, in 1979 and 1980) and fiction (Shadow Country, in 2008). A co-founder of The Paris Review and a world-renowned naturalist, explorer and activist, he died in April 2014.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 225 reviews
November 9, 2015
A fine example of Southern literature written by a guy from New York.
Matthiessen's historic fiction falls somewhere between James Agee and Harry Crews, a good read. I also noted influences or allusions to Flannery O'Connor, the obligatory nod to Faulkner, and more than a passing similarity to Macbeth.
This was my great-grandparent's generation in pioneer southwest Florida in the 1890s, rich and vibrant, the swamps and mud stick to the pages.
Matthiessen's historic fiction falls somewhere between James Agee and Harry Crews, a good read. I also noted influences or allusions to Flannery O'Connor, the obligatory nod to Faulkner, and more than a passing similarity to Macbeth.
This was my great-grandparent's generation in pioneer southwest Florida in the 1890s, rich and vibrant, the swamps and mud stick to the pages.
May 18, 2011
"But the truth don't count for much after all these years, cause folks hang on to what it suits 'em to believe and won't let go of it." Killing Mr. Watson, p. 92
Historically, Edgar "Bloody" Watson did exist and he was really killed by a posse in the Islands along the west coast of Florida. Matthiessen provides the full story of the the life and times of Watson based on amazing oral history accounts by the people of the Florida Islands. Having conducted, transcribed and edited a lot of oral histories I was most impressed by the voices of his narrators. He not only tells the story of Watson but also provides a lesson in racism and class distinction. He had me happily fooled into almost believing every word. He also had me wanting to believe Watson over and over again in the face of ridiculous evidence.
This was not an easy book for me to get into, but once hooked it was masterful.
Historically, Edgar "Bloody" Watson did exist and he was really killed by a posse in the Islands along the west coast of Florida. Matthiessen provides the full story of the the life and times of Watson based on amazing oral history accounts by the people of the Florida Islands. Having conducted, transcribed and edited a lot of oral histories I was most impressed by the voices of his narrators. He not only tells the story of Watson but also provides a lesson in racism and class distinction. He had me happily fooled into almost believing every word. He also had me wanting to believe Watson over and over again in the face of ridiculous evidence.
This was not an easy book for me to get into, but once hooked it was masterful.
December 20, 2011
A very interesting book -- set in the "frontier/wilderness" area of south Florida around 1900, told from multiple viewpoints. Mr. Watson was an enigmatic figure -- farmer, family man, good neighbor, and probable killer. This is the first in a trilogy in which the author is teasing out the real story (and its meaning?) from legend. Story is told by revolving cast of neighbors and relatives, second book is from the viewpoint of a son, and third is told by Mr. Watson. Not sure if I'm up to the story told again and again but maybe so . . . this one definitely worth reading, especially since the Everglades is a place I've visited and hope to visit again. Author does a good job of capturing the landscape and history of the area as well as telling a story.
October 18, 2014
I think the reason I’m bothering with this at all is because I wanted to use the word turgid. Turgid. It’s a good word. I get to use it far too little.
Making the halfway point on this may have changed my mind, but every other time I’ve stuck it out regardless, I’ve regretted it. Some things are not for me. Books like this are one of those things.
Making the halfway point on this may have changed my mind, but every other time I’ve stuck it out regardless, I’ve regretted it. Some things are not for me. Books like this are one of those things.
May 2, 2009
Some writers write fiction, some non-fiction, and never the twain shall meet. Right? I don’t think so. A good writer can write whatever they want. Perhaps the best example living today is Peter Matthiessen.
Matthiessen started his writing career as a novelist, a spinner of tales, but he is perhaps best known for some of his non-fiction works, “Wildlife in America” (1959), “Snow Leopard” (1980), “In the Spirit of Crazy Horse” (1983).
In the 1990s however, he returned to the novel and wrote what is known as the Watson trilogy. The first, published in 1990 is “Killing Mister Watson.” It's set in Southern Florida, in an area on the Gulf Coast west of the Everglades known as Ten Thousand Islands, a lawless region of swamps, islands and mangroves, where outlaws hid and opportunist poachers and plume-hunters patrolled by boat.
“It’s the dead silence after all the shooting that comes back today, though I never stuck around to hear it; I kind of remember it when I am dreaming. Them ghosty white trees and dead white ground, the sun and silence and the dry stink of guano, the squawking and shrieking and flopping of dark wings, and varmints hurrying without no sound—coons, rats, and possums, biting and biting, and the ants flowing up all them pale trees in the dark snaky ribbons to bite at them raw scrawny things that’s backed up to the ege of the nest, gullet pulsing and mouth open wide for the food and water that ain’t never going to come,” writes Matthiessen.
The storyline is based on local legend, the killing of Edgar J. Watson by townspeople, who decided to take the law into their own hands. They were afraid. Watson was an ill-educated, jingoistic, entrepreneur; a powerful land-owner with a sugar cane plantation who readily boosted, after a drink or two, of having killed 57 men, if it suited his purposes and it often did. If a laborer complained of not being paid in several weeks, that laborer might conveniently disappear.
The story is told from 12 perspectives: interviews with early settlers in Florida. Rich in local color, it’s a well-written, well-constructed novel.
Matthiessen started his writing career as a novelist, a spinner of tales, but he is perhaps best known for some of his non-fiction works, “Wildlife in America” (1959), “Snow Leopard” (1980), “In the Spirit of Crazy Horse” (1983).
In the 1990s however, he returned to the novel and wrote what is known as the Watson trilogy. The first, published in 1990 is “Killing Mister Watson.” It's set in Southern Florida, in an area on the Gulf Coast west of the Everglades known as Ten Thousand Islands, a lawless region of swamps, islands and mangroves, where outlaws hid and opportunist poachers and plume-hunters patrolled by boat.
“It’s the dead silence after all the shooting that comes back today, though I never stuck around to hear it; I kind of remember it when I am dreaming. Them ghosty white trees and dead white ground, the sun and silence and the dry stink of guano, the squawking and shrieking and flopping of dark wings, and varmints hurrying without no sound—coons, rats, and possums, biting and biting, and the ants flowing up all them pale trees in the dark snaky ribbons to bite at them raw scrawny things that’s backed up to the ege of the nest, gullet pulsing and mouth open wide for the food and water that ain’t never going to come,” writes Matthiessen.
The storyline is based on local legend, the killing of Edgar J. Watson by townspeople, who decided to take the law into their own hands. They were afraid. Watson was an ill-educated, jingoistic, entrepreneur; a powerful land-owner with a sugar cane plantation who readily boosted, after a drink or two, of having killed 57 men, if it suited his purposes and it often did. If a laborer complained of not being paid in several weeks, that laborer might conveniently disappear.
The story is told from 12 perspectives: interviews with early settlers in Florida. Rich in local color, it’s a well-written, well-constructed novel.
June 7, 2014
The first part of this blew me away. From the potent, almost biblical description of the eponymous deed which opens the book, to the incredible range of voices full of history, rumor and conspiracy about E.J. Watson, and about the weird, insular world of the Florida everglades circa 1900. the book feels almost like a contemporary as I Lay Dying. And like Faulkner, Matthiessen is interested in burrowing deep into a specific, woebegone locale and pulling its darkest parts out for investigation; there's the miscegenation, the casual racism, the morbid, vaguely incestuous family politics. But the real current in this book is the environment, and specifically it's degradation and destruction in the age of American expansion. Almost every chapter seems to contain a reference to trees uprooted, fields tilled up, birds shot for museums, alligators slaughtered for pelts.
Yet the book seems to really lose focus in the second half, and the giant cast of characters, some of whom only pop up to narrate a section or two and then vanish forever becomes unwieldy, as are Matthiessen's attempts to balance his abiding interest in the environment with his own personal interest and obsession with E.J. Watson. By the end, the various characters narrations, while beautifully rendered, feel a tad too journalistic to be really fictional and I wasn't sure if I was reading a novel or some elaborately fictionalized reportage, which isn't bad per se, but the whole thing becomes kind of monotonous after a few hundred pages of Florida crackers ruminating on doom, destruction and blood in more or less the same voice. Maybe one day I'll get around to reading the next two, but this on it's own seemed like more than enough.
Yet the book seems to really lose focus in the second half, and the giant cast of characters, some of whom only pop up to narrate a section or two and then vanish forever becomes unwieldy, as are Matthiessen's attempts to balance his abiding interest in the environment with his own personal interest and obsession with E.J. Watson. By the end, the various characters narrations, while beautifully rendered, feel a tad too journalistic to be really fictional and I wasn't sure if I was reading a novel or some elaborately fictionalized reportage, which isn't bad per se, but the whole thing becomes kind of monotonous after a few hundred pages of Florida crackers ruminating on doom, destruction and blood in more or less the same voice. Maybe one day I'll get around to reading the next two, but this on it's own seemed like more than enough.
January 18, 2016
Absolutely brilliant. I must find the other two in the trilogy and complete it. Or, I'll have to find the single volume that Matthiessen wrote that retells the three books in one and for which he won a major award - National Book Award, I believe.
This was a remarkable telling in multiple voices of a time in southern history just following the Civil War. Focusing on south Florida and a man named Mr. Watson who supposedly truly lived, Matthiessen creates a living "history" of a possible legend who may or may not have been the killer of Belle Star. With rich character development the author wanders between historical fact and totally believable fiction creating a sense of the taming of a land at a most tumultuous time.
Highly, highly recommended read!
This was a remarkable telling in multiple voices of a time in southern history just following the Civil War. Focusing on south Florida and a man named Mr. Watson who supposedly truly lived, Matthiessen creates a living "history" of a possible legend who may or may not have been the killer of Belle Star. With rich character development the author wanders between historical fact and totally believable fiction creating a sense of the taming of a land at a most tumultuous time.
Highly, highly recommended read!
March 23, 2014
Edgar J. Watson is in the pantheon of American bad guys, right up there with Cormac McCarthy's Judge Holden.
If your honest, and who among us is not, he is an ambiguous figure, like Holden. Oh, don't get me wrong, I know the jury of readers, feeling compelled to decide one way or the other, would sent Edgar J. and The Judge to the scaffold and then go home to settle down to a nice family dinner on linen table cloth and never have a doubt about the rightness of what they'd done.
Don't get me wrong. I'd be disappointed if my daughter were to marry EJ, or someone like him. There is a vast middle between the poles of good and bad, and like most of us, EJ falls somewhere in the middle, just more so.
More so because, like Holden, his actions occur between poles set a little further apart than most of us. And given that his actions unfold on the moral frontier of the 10,000 island region (not land and not sea) of Florida, that context should have some bearing on those who would judge him.
Call me amoral, but I never felt compelled to judge EJ. After all, he did in Belle Star and one can really get their knickers twisted up trying to decide whether murdering the baddest girl to pursue the outlaw career track is a good thing, or a bad thing. It's EJ's thing is all, a line in his bona fides is all.
And how 'bout the way EJ's neighbors did him him? Whose moral code countenances that?
by
Peter Matthiessen
If your honest, and who among us is not, he is an ambiguous figure, like Holden. Oh, don't get me wrong, I know the jury of readers, feeling compelled to decide one way or the other, would sent Edgar J. and The Judge to the scaffold and then go home to settle down to a nice family dinner on linen table cloth and never have a doubt about the rightness of what they'd done.
Don't get me wrong. I'd be disappointed if my daughter were to marry EJ, or someone like him. There is a vast middle between the poles of good and bad, and like most of us, EJ falls somewhere in the middle, just more so.
More so because, like Holden, his actions occur between poles set a little further apart than most of us. And given that his actions unfold on the moral frontier of the 10,000 island region (not land and not sea) of Florida, that context should have some bearing on those who would judge him.
Call me amoral, but I never felt compelled to judge EJ. After all, he did in Belle Star and one can really get their knickers twisted up trying to decide whether murdering the baddest girl to pursue the outlaw career track is a good thing, or a bad thing. It's EJ's thing is all, a line in his bona fides is all.
And how 'bout the way EJ's neighbors did him him? Whose moral code countenances that?
by
Peter Matthiessen
September 13, 2020
Killing Mr. Watson is the first novel in a trilogy that has now been published called Shadow Country. While the three components of the trilogy have been modified from their original form when Shadow Country was published, I have chosen to enter the three components as separate books because they are unique in their own ways.
Killing Mr. Watson is constructed of 53 "chapters" each of which is a first person narrative from one of 14 unique characters. While, obviously, the author intended the 53 narratives to run in somewhat of a chronological order, I chose to read the narrative of each of the 14 characters progressing chronologically through the novel. Did I cheat? I just found that approach to be easier in understanding the story.
No more illuminating description of Killing Mr. Watson was when it is discussed that ". . . rather than make the return run with her holds empty she had met a Cuban vessel off the Marquesas to take on a rum cargo on which no duty had been paid. Cole testified that his rascally captain had taken on that contraband without his knowledge. No one believed this and some wondered at the greed that drove prosperous businessmen to skirt the laws of the democracy they claimed to be so proud of, steal from their own government by overcharging for the beef while paying their lawyers to cheat it of its taxes."
Secondarily, but no less importance, was the depiction of the social culture of backwoods south eastern Florida, the so-called ten thousand islands. While unimportant to the rest of the world in any way, the location and roles dictate how one's life is set. Fate my be the best word but it seems that no one (especially the former slaves) can possibly escape their destiny.
Killing Mr. Watson is constructed of 53 "chapters" each of which is a first person narrative from one of 14 unique characters. While, obviously, the author intended the 53 narratives to run in somewhat of a chronological order, I chose to read the narrative of each of the 14 characters progressing chronologically through the novel. Did I cheat? I just found that approach to be easier in understanding the story.
No more illuminating description of Killing Mr. Watson was when it is discussed that ". . . rather than make the return run with her holds empty she had met a Cuban vessel off the Marquesas to take on a rum cargo on which no duty had been paid. Cole testified that his rascally captain had taken on that contraband without his knowledge. No one believed this and some wondered at the greed that drove prosperous businessmen to skirt the laws of the democracy they claimed to be so proud of, steal from their own government by overcharging for the beef while paying their lawyers to cheat it of its taxes."
Secondarily, but no less importance, was the depiction of the social culture of backwoods south eastern Florida, the so-called ten thousand islands. While unimportant to the rest of the world in any way, the location and roles dictate how one's life is set. Fate my be the best word but it seems that no one (especially the former slaves) can possibly escape their destiny.
June 30, 2014
This novel has been read by a good number of my family members. It deals with the mystery that shrouds the account of the lawless Ten Thousand Islands off the Gulf Coast of SW.FL. regarding Edgar J. Watson. My family is an integral part of this novel. This is a work of fiction, however, the late Mr. Matthiessen did his research. Watson was made out to be a monster of the Everglades. He was an outlaw, yes. But the inhabitants of the islands might have made more out of him than truly was. The turn of the 20th century was a rough time in the swamp, the people of this time and place made their own justice. Or at least they hoped so. This novel was based on facts using real family names and interviews.
February 19, 2013
I'd say zero stars but then you might think I never finished this piece of tripe. Just because someone has a pen and some paper and lots of time doesn't mean he can write. This was poorly written, poorly edited, and devoid of any true interest. I slogged through it our of determination but this is living proof that you don't need to buy a book because you saw it promoted at a half-ass museum in the Everglades.
December 26, 2021
I really wanted to like this because of the rave reviews and I persevered, thinking it was bound to pick up if I gave it time. For me, it didn't; I found it confusing, rambling and so, so tedious. After a while, I couldn't have cared less when yet another character gave me yet another similar insight into the same event. So pleased that I've finally finished it. The other Mathiessen book I have on my shelf is going straight to the charity shop.
September 5, 2007
Lord I hated this book! It's the story of a community's plot to kill a hated neighbor from multiple perspectives in the Florida Everglades in the 1800s. Even if I could get beyond the liberal use of the "n" word (which I really can't), the whole book just made me want to take lots and lots of showers. Ick!
June 11, 2009
This is a remarkable account of life in The Thousand Islands(SW Florida) in the early part of the 20th Century. The descriptions made my skin crawl in discomfort. How they coped with the 'skeeters'( mosquitoes) I will never know.
So here I am almost 5 years later and this book remains strong in my mind. Proof, if proof is needed , of a great book.
So here I am almost 5 years later and this book remains strong in my mind. Proof, if proof is needed , of a great book.
January 27, 2021
Gave up.
I rarely give up.
Extremely tedious book, with almost nothing to recommend. Life is too short, y’all.
I rarely give up.
Extremely tedious book, with almost nothing to recommend. Life is too short, y’all.
November 9, 2022
A book that was on my TBR list forever and I finally got to it. Winner winner. This was a meticulously researched true historical novel about the life and death of E.J. Watson- a farmer, respected businessman, land developer, husband, father and probably multiple murderer. Watson showed up in southwest Florida a mysterious figure and became the most well known citizen and most spectacular villian.
A deep dive into life in coastal south Florida at the turn of the century- the incredible hardships, the hurricanes, the lawlessness, the communities and families. This was not an environment for the faint-hearted.
The story is told chronologically from many voices in the community. The audiobook was well done, and while I could follow the story- sometimes it was difficult to keep all the characters straight.
4 solid stars.
A deep dive into life in coastal south Florida at the turn of the century- the incredible hardships, the hurricanes, the lawlessness, the communities and families. This was not an environment for the faint-hearted.
The story is told chronologically from many voices in the community. The audiobook was well done, and while I could follow the story- sometimes it was difficult to keep all the characters straight.
4 solid stars.
February 26, 2014
Killing Mister Watson took place near where I live in southwest Florida, a little more than a century ago. I know the place names and the family names. I have stood where the killing took place, at Smallwood's store at Chokoloskee, though I didn't know about it at the time. The story is told in the remembrances of the happenings, the gossip, and the rumors of the people who were there. It seems authentic. I may have rated this higher than some others might because of its locations, the history that is the history of where I live, but I'm glad I read it.
January 7, 2011
Wonderful storytelling in an obscure corner of U.S. history, the Everglades area of Florida at the turn of the 20th century. It took me a while to get hooked, with the number of people involved leaving me disoriented; I almost feel like I should read it a second time. In the end, it's a tapestry of personal views on Mr. Watson, and the facets of an image begin to emerge.
August 6, 2016
Too long
July 6, 2025
"It was like I had woke in some night country on the dark side of the earth that all of us have to go to alone... My heart began to race too hard, I was so scared I wanted to cry out and run, but there was nowhere but them blackened fields that I could run to. The earth was ringing in a silver light, the stars gone wild. It was like the whole continent of America, with all us white people and Injuns and n******, me included, lay sprawled like poor Miss Maybelle Shirley, with her end nearing, blacking out the stars. That poor soul had stared at Heaven like I was staring now, the whole universe grieving, and these night rivers bleeding her to death."
Read
December 31, 2018A polyphonic retelling of the foul deeds of the eponymous Watson, a gunhand and would be industrialist, basically Absalom, Absalom in the Florida Keys. Its good, its very well written but there’s also shooting and murder and mystery and whatnot. I felt that the various viewpoints read too similarly and lacked the disparate stylization necessary for this style of writing, and the author’s own (admirable) moral viewpoint came through too strong. Which makes it sound like I didn’t like the book, but I did like the book, I just felt it didn’t quite manage to fulfill its enormous ambitions.
September 9, 2024
Oh gosh! Hard book to write a review for. I really wanted to love it, as I do with most historical novels. It was interesting history but very confusing to read with +10 ppl narrating. It was a very dark time down in the very Southern part during the end of the 1800’s to the beginning of 1900’s, race discrimination, class differences and the hardship of living among pretty much everyone with a dark past, oh and did I mention the 🦟 skeeters and the hurricanes? Glad I read it but will not continue the trilogy.
September 19, 2024
Cool old Florida stuff
February 1, 2023
I enjoyed reading about the many places in Florida I've been to or heard about (especially The Thousand Islands area) and the names of people I've heard about. But it wasn't my kind of book after all. Those were some rough people & rough times.
January 18, 2017
The novel Killing Mister Watson is based on a real life event that took place between 1855 and 1910. This novel is about a man named Edgar J. Watson who kills Belle Starr who is a well-known criminal in the Fort Smith, Arkansas at the time. Edgar boasted many times about killing many people, but was only accused in 1889 for killing Belle Starr. Edgar and other characters narrate their versions of what crimes Edgar did and did not commit in the Fort Smith, Arkansas, and even though he was never on trial for Belle Starr’s murder and other crimes that residents claimed he committed, he still left Arkansas and moved to the Florida Everglades. He moved to Chatham Bend in Chokoloskee, Florida and the city knew of his past, but he was still welcomed into the community without doubt and he became a farmer. Thirty years after moving to Florida, many of the residents suspect him of causing his employees to disappear and they kill him.
The theme of this novel is suspicion because Edgar moved to many different cities and people were suspicious because there were a lot murders where he moved, and when people wanted to question him, he had already fled to a different city. The moral is your first impression is the one people always remember because even though Edgar tried to change and become a better person, people were still suspicious of his intentions and were always careful around him because they did not want to get killed.
This book has a grim tone because the characters talking about Mister Watson and all of his victims had to describe bloody scenes, and dead bodies, and grieving families. It has a fearful mood because I felt afraid that these are things that people actually enjoy doing and that it could happen to anyone.
Some positive things about this book are that the front cover of the book has dark colors and mixed colors to show mystery and chaos, and there were different perspectives of Mister Watson because it is always fun to hear what other people think. A negative thing is that sometimes switching from one perspective to the next was a little confusing, and I could not understand who was talking at times.
The theme of this novel is suspicion because Edgar moved to many different cities and people were suspicious because there were a lot murders where he moved, and when people wanted to question him, he had already fled to a different city. The moral is your first impression is the one people always remember because even though Edgar tried to change and become a better person, people were still suspicious of his intentions and were always careful around him because they did not want to get killed.
This book has a grim tone because the characters talking about Mister Watson and all of his victims had to describe bloody scenes, and dead bodies, and grieving families. It has a fearful mood because I felt afraid that these are things that people actually enjoy doing and that it could happen to anyone.
Some positive things about this book are that the front cover of the book has dark colors and mixed colors to show mystery and chaos, and there were different perspectives of Mister Watson because it is always fun to hear what other people think. A negative thing is that sometimes switching from one perspective to the next was a little confusing, and I could not understand who was talking at times.
September 2, 2021
I really wanted to like this book. I saw the good reviews here on Goodreads and I gave it a try. There wasn’t very much plot to the story it’s a bunch of interviews tooth in the first person about one event that happened in the 1900s in Florida. The one positive I have for this book is the writing was beautiful! Especially the prologue I feel confused most of the time especially by all the characters that were not introduced just a bunch of talking and skipping around peoples thoughts but the way it all came together at the end to paint this picture of a group of people who are about to murder a man really made me excited. However the rest of the book was extremely disappointing. I had to DNF this book because the Plot was just boring. I already knew Watson died from the prologue. The way it was written was just boring and I was falling asleep the whole time trying so hard just to read a little more but I decided it wasn’t really worth all the time to finish the book. I gave the setting three stars because it was beautifully described I could literally paint a picture in my mind the author is beautiful with words. However the execution was lacking. I hope that once I got into the chapters I will learn more about the characters and be able to feel a little more connected to them and understand what was happening but I felt just as if I was reading words that sounded beautiful but made no sense.
I think the book could be a great book for someone who doesn’t need a lot of character development or connection to the plot just more a history buff. I would recommend this novel only if you were interested in the specific murder. However It really lacked so much that I wouldn’t recommend it.
I think the book could be a great book for someone who doesn’t need a lot of character development or connection to the plot just more a history buff. I would recommend this novel only if you were interested in the specific murder. However It really lacked so much that I wouldn’t recommend it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 27, 2018
This was an awful book. It was very boring. I could not stay awake through this book.
It's only redeeming features is that I enjoyed reading historical tidbits about Southwest Florida and hearing the descriptions of the natural setting.
There are too many characters to keep track of and the dialect was hard to read. Some of the chapters go over the same few incidents over and over again.
The story is about a real incident in 1910 where a local Plantation owner near Ft. Myers Florida is killed. This book explores the killing of this Mr. Watson, a sugar cane plantation owner, and it discusses his behavior and the crimes associated with him. I think he did deserve to die although I do agree that some incidents may have been falsely attributed to him. There was no law back then at all. There was no way to investigate anything he was supposedly said to have done.
I do appreciate that 6 years of research went into this. I'm sorry it's not better written.
It's only redeeming features is that I enjoyed reading historical tidbits about Southwest Florida and hearing the descriptions of the natural setting.
There are too many characters to keep track of and the dialect was hard to read. Some of the chapters go over the same few incidents over and over again.
The story is about a real incident in 1910 where a local Plantation owner near Ft. Myers Florida is killed. This book explores the killing of this Mr. Watson, a sugar cane plantation owner, and it discusses his behavior and the crimes associated with him. I think he did deserve to die although I do agree that some incidents may have been falsely attributed to him. There was no law back then at all. There was no way to investigate anything he was supposedly said to have done.
I do appreciate that 6 years of research went into this. I'm sorry it's not better written.
March 11, 2019
I struggled with this one a bit. It's about the rough and ready people making up the southern Florida territories at the turn of the 20th Century, as it was developing. Its main character, Watson a farmer and businessman running from the law, is mostly represented by his associates and relatives. You hear a lot of different voices and perspectives, and the author portrays these various voices well. The novel covers many small anecdotes about the times, but there is very little plot or movement. So my struggle was more around keeping interested--what's the point? It is not a hard read, but was fairly boring. It is interesting to think of Ft. Meyers or Key West as small, backwater villages, but I never felt immersed in the times, more like an observer who was trying to figure out the point. there are secrets there--but take too long to reveal. It also jumped around to different people often, was hard to keep track. Maybe the sequel, Shadow Country, highly lauded, does a better job.
February 8, 2016
Killing Mr. Watson (Shadow Country #1) by Peter Matthiessen (Vintage Books 1990) (Fiction). This is the first in a trilogy set at in the late 1800's and early 1990's. It tells the vast sweeping tale of "The Outlaw Edgar Watson" or "Bloody Watson" from the Ten Thousand Islands in deepest Southwest Florida - Everglades country. Watson was a plantation owner, sugarcane grower, fisherman, and bully of the highest order in a particularly lawless and uncontrolled part of the country. He was shot dead by an informal posse of his neighbors when the community consensus was that he finally needed or deserved killing. Author Peter Matthiessen later rewrote the trilogy into a single volume entitled Shadow Country. I love both the short and the long versions! My rating: 9/10, finished 1990.
December 1, 2019
Yay & Ugh! Yay, I finished this book! Ugh, it was torture! Lots of accolades went to this book for a creative approach to the subject (true story that was a blip around 1900 in the Wild West of Florida). The writer fleshed out a story told from multiple (read that as toooooo many] first person perspectives. It’s tedious because the same portion is told, retold, and told again from several people. Solid writing and unique voices kept pleading ‘oh, sweet Jesus go somewhere!’
Displaying 1 - 30 of 225 reviews