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Shadow Country Trilogy #3
Bone by Bone
Peter Matthiessen is one of America's most respected writers and one of the very few National Book Award winners nominated for both fiction and nonfiction. Bone by Bone is arguably his finest novel. Although it stands alone, it is also the capstone of the Watson trilogy, which has been described by the San Francisco Chronicle Book Review as "one of the grand projects of contemporary literature."
In the critically acclaimed Killing Mister Watson , Peter Matthiessen brilliantly re-created the life of the legendary E. J. Watson, who was gunned down by a posse of fearful neighbors before World War I. In his masterful sequel, Lost Man's River, Matthiessen returned us to the lawless frontier of the Florida Everglades, where Watson's son Lucius sought to untangle the knot of truth and lies surrounding his notorious father and his strange death. And now, in Bone by Bone, the story unfolds in its final form, in the voice of the enigmatic Mister Watson himself.
From his early days as an impoverished child of the Reconstruction era, through the unjust loss of his inherited plantation, to his bloody death in front of his loving wife and children, E. J. Watson was capable of vision and ingenuity, mercy and courage, and sudden, astonishing violence. He was an entrepreneurial sugarcane farmer in the uncharted waterways of the Everglades, an exile in the Indian territories, a devoted father, and, allegedly, the killer of numerous men. He was forced to flee home and family time after time.
In Bone by Bone , Peter Matthiessen has accomplished the writer's ultimate He has laid bare the humanity at the heart of a dangerous and controversial figure and, in doing so, has added to our understanding of the abiding mystery of human nature.
In the critically acclaimed Killing Mister Watson , Peter Matthiessen brilliantly re-created the life of the legendary E. J. Watson, who was gunned down by a posse of fearful neighbors before World War I. In his masterful sequel, Lost Man's River, Matthiessen returned us to the lawless frontier of the Florida Everglades, where Watson's son Lucius sought to untangle the knot of truth and lies surrounding his notorious father and his strange death. And now, in Bone by Bone, the story unfolds in its final form, in the voice of the enigmatic Mister Watson himself.
From his early days as an impoverished child of the Reconstruction era, through the unjust loss of his inherited plantation, to his bloody death in front of his loving wife and children, E. J. Watson was capable of vision and ingenuity, mercy and courage, and sudden, astonishing violence. He was an entrepreneurial sugarcane farmer in the uncharted waterways of the Everglades, an exile in the Indian territories, a devoted father, and, allegedly, the killer of numerous men. He was forced to flee home and family time after time.
In Bone by Bone , Peter Matthiessen has accomplished the writer's ultimate He has laid bare the humanity at the heart of a dangerous and controversial figure and, in doing so, has added to our understanding of the abiding mystery of human nature.
410 pages, Hardcover
First published April 6, 1999
11 people are currently reading
469 people want to read
About the author
Peter Matthiessen
142 books895 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 40 reviews
December 14, 2013
The cover of a new book about juvenile crime made me pause. It's called "Lost Boys: Why Our Sons Turn Violent," by James Garbarino (Free Press). On the front are two sweet looking kids about eight years old. One's holding a shotgun to the other's head.
In a period of rapidly falling crime rates, incidents of juvenile violence are even more perplexing. The past year has produced several trenchant books on the tribulations of young men, a male echo of the warning sound about young women broadcast by Mary Pipher's "Reviving Ophelia" in 1994.
Peter Matthiessen isn't a social worker, a psychiatrist, or a youth counselor. And his new novel is a work of art, not sociology. But "Bone by Bone," the brutal story of how a reluctant murderer is made, conveys the kind of Shakespearean insight into human nature that outstrips what nonfiction can do.
The novel breaks open with a long chapter that's almost as traumatic for the reader as for the young narrator. One of Edgar Watson's first memories is of his uncles lynching a runaway slave toward the end of the Civil War.
Shamed by his "unmanly feelings" of pity, Edgar thinks, "As for my fear, it was nothing more than common dread of swamps and labyrinths, of dusk, of death - the shadow places. Yet poor black Joseph sprawled unburied in the roots, losing all shape and semblance to the coming night, was an image etched in my mind's eye all my life."
Over the next 50 years, we see the effects of that early exposure to violence. Edgar's budding conscience is shredded by the conflicting attitudes of a region decimated by war, poisoned by racism, and struggling to ignore the equality of all people.
His drunken father, Ring-Eye Lige, infects Edgar with a deadly code of honor even while beating him almost to death. When his father invites him to another lynching, the young boy admits, "My pride in my father ... was edged with deep confusion and misgiving."
Woven into the frayed edges of a powerful South Carolina clan, Edgar instinctively feels the nobility of his despised cousin Selden Tilghman, who pays a ghastly price for opposing the racial violence he realizes is thwarting the South's recovery.
Psychologically fractured by these opposing models of manhood and afraid for his life, Edgar finally runs away from his family. But throughout this pitiless story, Edgar's thinly repressed anger conspires to ruin his chances in life. In this grinding blend of disposition and circumstance, "Bone by Bone" rises to the level of classic tragedy.
"I howled at the high heavens, but to whom?" Edgar asks. "Alone on the highroad in the leaden light, I knew my life had lost its purchase. The future was flying away forever, like a dark bird crossing distant woods. Not knowing where to turn, with no one to confide in, I hurried onward."
Moving to Florida at the turn of the century, the story drives through a bewildering collection of his wives, relatives, employees, and enemies. It's a remarkable look at the Southern frontier, a land that remained wild and violent long after the Western frontier settled down.
Edgar eventually becomes a syrup manufacturer, but murders and rumors of murders continue to leach his reputation and throw him into violent confrontations. Through all the horror, some accidental, some deliberate, Edgar never loses that strangely endearing desire to understand himself and his violent urges.
"For taking a life, one paid with one's own soul," Edgar laments. "To behold the light in another's eyes before extinguishing that light was self-destruction, because those eyes looking back at you became your own."
Along with a fascinating history of the Southeast, Matthiessen has written a classic story of how crushed innocence mutates in the crucible of a macho culture. He's captured the nature of a murderer who fully comprehends the horror and waste of his crimes.
http://www.csmonitor.com/1999/0415/p1...
In a period of rapidly falling crime rates, incidents of juvenile violence are even more perplexing. The past year has produced several trenchant books on the tribulations of young men, a male echo of the warning sound about young women broadcast by Mary Pipher's "Reviving Ophelia" in 1994.
Peter Matthiessen isn't a social worker, a psychiatrist, or a youth counselor. And his new novel is a work of art, not sociology. But "Bone by Bone," the brutal story of how a reluctant murderer is made, conveys the kind of Shakespearean insight into human nature that outstrips what nonfiction can do.
The novel breaks open with a long chapter that's almost as traumatic for the reader as for the young narrator. One of Edgar Watson's first memories is of his uncles lynching a runaway slave toward the end of the Civil War.
Shamed by his "unmanly feelings" of pity, Edgar thinks, "As for my fear, it was nothing more than common dread of swamps and labyrinths, of dusk, of death - the shadow places. Yet poor black Joseph sprawled unburied in the roots, losing all shape and semblance to the coming night, was an image etched in my mind's eye all my life."
Over the next 50 years, we see the effects of that early exposure to violence. Edgar's budding conscience is shredded by the conflicting attitudes of a region decimated by war, poisoned by racism, and struggling to ignore the equality of all people.
His drunken father, Ring-Eye Lige, infects Edgar with a deadly code of honor even while beating him almost to death. When his father invites him to another lynching, the young boy admits, "My pride in my father ... was edged with deep confusion and misgiving."
Woven into the frayed edges of a powerful South Carolina clan, Edgar instinctively feels the nobility of his despised cousin Selden Tilghman, who pays a ghastly price for opposing the racial violence he realizes is thwarting the South's recovery.
Psychologically fractured by these opposing models of manhood and afraid for his life, Edgar finally runs away from his family. But throughout this pitiless story, Edgar's thinly repressed anger conspires to ruin his chances in life. In this grinding blend of disposition and circumstance, "Bone by Bone" rises to the level of classic tragedy.
"I howled at the high heavens, but to whom?" Edgar asks. "Alone on the highroad in the leaden light, I knew my life had lost its purchase. The future was flying away forever, like a dark bird crossing distant woods. Not knowing where to turn, with no one to confide in, I hurried onward."
Moving to Florida at the turn of the century, the story drives through a bewildering collection of his wives, relatives, employees, and enemies. It's a remarkable look at the Southern frontier, a land that remained wild and violent long after the Western frontier settled down.
Edgar eventually becomes a syrup manufacturer, but murders and rumors of murders continue to leach his reputation and throw him into violent confrontations. Through all the horror, some accidental, some deliberate, Edgar never loses that strangely endearing desire to understand himself and his violent urges.
"For taking a life, one paid with one's own soul," Edgar laments. "To behold the light in another's eyes before extinguishing that light was self-destruction, because those eyes looking back at you became your own."
Along with a fascinating history of the Southeast, Matthiessen has written a classic story of how crushed innocence mutates in the crucible of a macho culture. He's captured the nature of a murderer who fully comprehends the horror and waste of his crimes.
http://www.csmonitor.com/1999/0415/p1...
May 10, 2022
Book 3. Fantastic. Little backstory, I picked up Shadow Country the 2010 release from Peter Matthiessen that makes up these 3 novels in an re-edited, re-conceived single issue format. About 900 pages. I was going to do a reread but decided instead to read the 3 individual novels that made up Shadow Country. And I’m glad I did. More of everything. Watson is more evil (if that was even possible), there’s more from Lucius one of Watson’s young sons. Just a beautifully conceived 3 books. I was in fact, incredibly impressed by how planned out the 3 books are.
If you feel like digging in to the full breath of the Watson saga then pick up the 3 individual novels. At least pick up Shadow Country. It’s phenomenal.
If you feel like digging in to the full breath of the Watson saga then pick up the 3 individual novels. At least pick up Shadow Country. It’s phenomenal.
January 3, 2010
Bone by Bone is the 3d volume in Peter Matthiessen's epic trilogy about E. J. Watson and the southwestern Florida coast at the turn of the century. I'd already read Killing Mr Watson, the 1st volume, when Matthiessen published his revision of the trilogy as Shadow Country. Rather than read that single volume, as fine as it's reputed to be, I decided to stay the course with the original 3 novels. So last year I reread Killing Mr Watson, then Lost Man's River during the summer. And now I've completed Bone by Bone and the trilogy. E. J. Watson had a reputation as an outlaw. He was thought to have killed Belle Starr in the Oklahoma Territory, later had to leave northern Florida under the shadow of murder, and all that baggage followed him to the 10,000 Islands where his neighbors feared him and considered him a man who'd go to any ends, even break the law, to be successful as a sugar cane grower and syrup manufacturer. Killing Mr Watson is told in the many voices of those neighbors. Matthiessen's treatment of Watson is as the Satan in the Eden that was southwest Florida around 1900. Lost Man's River occurs half a century later. It's told through Lucius Watson, E. J.'s son, and again the same voices are used in interviews to retell the story with different slants and perspectives. I thought Bone by Bone to be the most accessible of the novels, and I like to think maybe because it isn't in multiple voices but is, instead, spoken by Watson alone, those dreadful events finally given his point of view. As reader, I was able to establish and maintain a rhythm so that the story flows as smoothly as the tides so frequently mentioned. Without quite seeing himself as Satan, Watson recognizes the verdant coastline rich in foliage and wildlife is a heaven. But here Matthiessen sees the conflicts as the expulsion of Satan from heaven, Satan's fall, all overseen by the oracular 1910 passing of Halley's Comet. Who knows, in the end, the truth? The inhabitants of the coast, that region south of Naples, fear him as a violent man, a murderer responsible for many deaths and other shady happenings. Horrors proliferate. Watson's portrait of himself is that of one who cares for others while at the same time careful to control events to his social and economic advantage. He paints himself as well-intentioned but influenced by the designs of others, his innocent intention corrupted as events and situations slide out of his control It's for the reader to decide whether or not goodness triumphs, whether or not greed wins, whether or not evil is defeated. What's certain is that fear, rather than good or evil, is the greatest force at work in the islands. In my opinion, this final volume and the trilogy don't quite match a couple of other Peter Matthiessen novels: At Play in the Fields of the Lord and Far Tortuga. But he's a very fine novelist and with this trilogy has written something worthwhile. To me he demonstrates one of the most admirable traits of the novelist--elegance. By the last page, Bone by Bone and the trilogy have become elegant.
September 12, 2023
My beloved colleague of many years gave me this trilogy to read years before he died and I finished them out of a desire to connect with him and his literary interests. The books just kind of got worse. This is the story of E J Watson’s life from his own persectice and it is only compelling as a story if you’ve read the first two books so you can see how things looked from the villain’s point of view. I think the rich picture of the eco one and sociology of early 20th century West Florida are quite amazing. But in between you have to read about the life of an u pleasant person making bad choices.
March 5, 2012
I've spent a lot of my reading time over the last few months with this trilogy -- it is well-written, a fascinating story and place. My favorite was the first book; this one was the most painful to read. The first book was set entirely in south Florida; the second book did include some north Florida and Indian Territory settings. But this one begins with the childhood of the main character, in a very difficult time and place in American history, immediately after the Civil War, in Edgeville County, South Carolina. Was Mr. Watson a killer without a conscience? Was he a victim himself in childhood of a violent time, place and a father who beat him? Mr. Watson, as a young boy, is drawn into terrible things. . . . and since the story is narrated by Mr. Watson himself, it is told in the language he would have thought in but I had trouble sometimes with that language.
Somehow this trilogy manages to touch on so many American issues -- race, frontier, violence, greed, disregard for nature. I may even go back and reread the first book of the trilogy again. I'm not sure I picked up all the themes and relationships in the book. Certainly good books to make one think.
Somehow this trilogy manages to touch on so many American issues -- race, frontier, violence, greed, disregard for nature. I may even go back and reread the first book of the trilogy again. I'm not sure I picked up all the themes and relationships in the book. Certainly good books to make one think.
February 23, 2010
Very disturbing and hard to read, but a compelling picture of the desperation (and greed) leading to the settling and development of Florida's Gulf Coast. I'm not sure I'll make it through the rest of the trilogy; EJ Watson is an unpleasant character; but it was a powerful experience reading it soon after traveling in that region.
October 17, 2020
Bone by Bone is the third novel in the series of Shadow Country. This series was especially notable in its style. In book one, Killing Mr. Watson, we read first person narratives of 18 characters and are introduced to the physical and cultural geography of southwest Florida and Ten Thousand Islands. Never before was the subject of perspectives so apparent. Perceptions of things are not always the same especially when it comes to people.
In book two, Lost Man's River, we read the story of the protagonist of all three books, Edgar Watson, as told by his son Lucian. In book three, Bone by Bone we read the story of Watson as told by himself. So there is remarkable depth in the story from so many sides.
We learn about the subject of character as viewed by Watson. "What is it that constitutes character, popularity, and power in the United States? Sir, it is property, and that only! All my life [Watson's], I would be guided by those ringing words." Watson is often successful as an entrepreneur. But as many highs he achieved, this lows were as numerous if not greater.
Watson is confronted by an aunt who says "It's hard to put a finger on a fool. Have you discovered that in life, you of all people, Nephew, who had such energy and promise? Aren't you a fool, an accursed fool, to ruin every chance that comes your way?" Watson would be the last person to honestly speak out loud about his failings, blaming all of them on others or on events outside of his control. Yet to himself he was honest and this frustrated him to no end. At one point, the author exquisitely writes "That young man's scar is the mortal imperfection the makes immortal the beauty of his face."
Furthermore, our author superbly conveys Watson's rationalization of his too many murders and his frustration when he is accused of murders that he didn't commit. It is not a spoiler to point out the ultimate in ironies; Watson is murdered by a posse of his peers for a murder that he didn't not commit.
So the challenge is this. Shadow Country is a difficult read and will take quite a long time to read it carefully and to gain the full beauty of the author's penmanship. I am very glad my family gifted me Shadow Country as I don't think I would have otherwise read it.
One further important note. From an historical and educational viewpoint, Shadow Country sets forth the extraordinary discrimination (and that is putting it mildly) of African-Americans and Native Americans in the United States and especially in the South. The time period of the novel is 1890 to 1910. The depictions were difficult to stomach.
In book two, Lost Man's River, we read the story of the protagonist of all three books, Edgar Watson, as told by his son Lucian. In book three, Bone by Bone we read the story of Watson as told by himself. So there is remarkable depth in the story from so many sides.
We learn about the subject of character as viewed by Watson. "What is it that constitutes character, popularity, and power in the United States? Sir, it is property, and that only! All my life [Watson's], I would be guided by those ringing words." Watson is often successful as an entrepreneur. But as many highs he achieved, this lows were as numerous if not greater.
Watson is confronted by an aunt who says "It's hard to put a finger on a fool. Have you discovered that in life, you of all people, Nephew, who had such energy and promise? Aren't you a fool, an accursed fool, to ruin every chance that comes your way?" Watson would be the last person to honestly speak out loud about his failings, blaming all of them on others or on events outside of his control. Yet to himself he was honest and this frustrated him to no end. At one point, the author exquisitely writes "That young man's scar is the mortal imperfection the makes immortal the beauty of his face."
Furthermore, our author superbly conveys Watson's rationalization of his too many murders and his frustration when he is accused of murders that he didn't commit. It is not a spoiler to point out the ultimate in ironies; Watson is murdered by a posse of his peers for a murder that he didn't not commit.
So the challenge is this. Shadow Country is a difficult read and will take quite a long time to read it carefully and to gain the full beauty of the author's penmanship. I am very glad my family gifted me Shadow Country as I don't think I would have otherwise read it.
One further important note. From an historical and educational viewpoint, Shadow Country sets forth the extraordinary discrimination (and that is putting it mildly) of African-Americans and Native Americans in the United States and especially in the South. The time period of the novel is 1890 to 1910. The depictions were difficult to stomach.
October 10, 2015
Peter Matthiessen is a master storyteller. I can't imagine opening one of his books and not becoming deeply engaged very quickly. I listened to Bone by Bone narrated by George Guidall. He, too, is a master of his art. So much so that I've now added other audiobooks narrated by him to my 'to read' list. I highly recommend the audiobook for this story.
November 7, 2009
The characters in this book were like watching car wrecks, or dangerous animals. It felt like a really long book. I accidentally read Bone by Bone without knowing it is the last of a trilogy. Now I want to read the others: Killing Mister Watson and Lost Man's River.
February 9, 2023
This is the third in the SHADOW COUNTRY trilogy about Edgar Watson who was killed in Chokoloskie, Florida in 1910. He was a real person and this book tells his story in an autobiographical novel. The basic story is told in the first book, KILLING MISTER WATSON, and then explored later on in the book, LOST MAN'S RIVER, which has the son trying to find out the story of his father's life through interviews with family members and friends. Most trilogies are somewhat sequential, while this one has the same basic story coming from different angles. I liked how this one was written, at first, but eventually got tired of it.
May 18, 2020
This 3rd book in the author's trilogy was much weaker for me. Many of the characters felt indistinguishable and although I finished it, I was disappointed enough in the answers to all the questions left with me after the first two books that I almost wish I hadn't even begun it. It fairly quickly reached a point where Watson was so unlikeable - even despicable - that there was nothing he could do that would redeem him. I preferred the man and answers I had optimistically imagined before this book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 9, 2019
The story of a man, E J Watson, in the years after the Civil War- his escape from a cruel, abusive father and his life as he tries to make his way in the world- often accused of deeds he didn't do. I wanted to like this book way more than I did- it was just hard to care at all about the characters or get really involved in the story.
December 1, 2020
Oh, my! "Hillbilly Elegy" deep South version, circa post Civil War until WW One. Follows the main character as he becomes part of the Post Civil War South and all its "white supremacist" ways and means. A lot of bloodshed and racial slurs so this book is not for the delicate...but it is an excellent look into how and why we have Trump supporters in this day and age.
June 22, 2025
Edgar J Watson is a very disturbing character; throughout the novel he is depicted as partaking in statutory rape, fathering children from several underage women. Granted this was back in 19th century America where standards were different then. He also possesses flexible morals, when he works with and employs known outlaws.
September 5, 2018
Finally finished the third book in the “Shadow Lands” trilogy. This one’s Edgar Watson’s first person version of the story. Still not entirely sure how reliable a narrator he was. Maybe excerpt for the ending, that is. :)
July 22, 2020
This is an ambitious book about a mean, nasty man told from his point of view. Not pleasant to read in a lot of spots, but oh man Matthiessen can put together a sentence. I probably would not recommend, however, go with Killing Mr. Watson instead.
November 19, 2017
Too long. By a lot.
November 13, 2018
Wonderful book and great finish to the trilogy. I am tempted to read the trilogy backwards to unpack things.
March 21, 2019
I did not enjoy this book. It supposed to be a classic and so for the sake of my education I waded through it, every tortuous page. Why?
October 14, 2021
Deeply researched and imagined, beautifully written, but a slow, tedious read.
October 8, 2013
There is a lot to recommend this book. It provides remarkable pictures of the US, in particular Florida, during the turn of the 19th to the 20th century. It provides one way to view the world of E.J. Watson, a legendary character in Florida in that time. It offers a bit of a cautionary tale about ecology, albeit in the background. Yet for me its story of Watson was almost relentlessly awful. That is, the things Watson did and the things that were done to him were almost all bad. The small lights in his world did not shine brightly enough to turn his character around, and his actions led to retaliation of the worst sort.
Watson was a real person. The people surrounding him were based on real people, including his three wives and I-forget-how-many children. However, this is not history. It is not even fictionalized biography. It is the author's effort to explain the little he was able to find out about this man.
Watson's start in life did not bode well for the future. He fled from an abusive dirt-poor home when he was sixteen. He had a powerful work ethic, which helped him build a sugar cane plantation in Florida, along with other efforts. He fell in love seriously with his first wife, who died young. Perhaps his loveless childhood and the loss of this wife were contributors to his view of the world. Try as he might, he was unable to maintain an ethical, decent manner toward all. Instead, when pushed he would push back, and worse. He "did right" by a few people but even in those cases there was a limit to what he could offer. He put himself first.
The book is written in an interesting way, almost, in some places, like a book on the environment or a historical nonfiction book. As Matthiessen has written nonfiction as well, I think it was natural for some of that style to slip in here. The passages about Watson himself are well-drawn, yet I was never able to be fully sympathetic. Not having that connection made it difficult at times for me to push on.
Certainly it is a remarkable book. The author has taken what little he could find and pulled it together in not one but three books. This is the third of a trilogy on the Watson saga. This is the one that gets into the flesh and blood of the man. I found I was less impressed by it than were others because of the constant beating of awful awful awful. It was hard for me to swallow some of his actions and to continue wanting to know what would happen next. I sincerely hope that this book finds other readers who do not find it as much a chore as I did.
Watson was a real person. The people surrounding him were based on real people, including his three wives and I-forget-how-many children. However, this is not history. It is not even fictionalized biography. It is the author's effort to explain the little he was able to find out about this man.
Watson's start in life did not bode well for the future. He fled from an abusive dirt-poor home when he was sixteen. He had a powerful work ethic, which helped him build a sugar cane plantation in Florida, along with other efforts. He fell in love seriously with his first wife, who died young. Perhaps his loveless childhood and the loss of this wife were contributors to his view of the world. Try as he might, he was unable to maintain an ethical, decent manner toward all. Instead, when pushed he would push back, and worse. He "did right" by a few people but even in those cases there was a limit to what he could offer. He put himself first.
The book is written in an interesting way, almost, in some places, like a book on the environment or a historical nonfiction book. As Matthiessen has written nonfiction as well, I think it was natural for some of that style to slip in here. The passages about Watson himself are well-drawn, yet I was never able to be fully sympathetic. Not having that connection made it difficult at times for me to push on.
Certainly it is a remarkable book. The author has taken what little he could find and pulled it together in not one but three books. This is the third of a trilogy on the Watson saga. This is the one that gets into the flesh and blood of the man. I found I was less impressed by it than were others because of the constant beating of awful awful awful. It was hard for me to swallow some of his actions and to continue wanting to know what would happen next. I sincerely hope that this book finds other readers who do not find it as much a chore as I did.
August 25, 2016
First, I did not read the first two books in the trilogy that were set after this book; but to be read before. Second, it felt like a man would have enjoyed it much more than a woman.
The writing is excellent, the subject sad and disgusting. Mr. Watson was a battered child both physically and mentally. This can not excuse all of his actions and the delusional way he dealt with his decisions in life. He proceeded to marry and have children with a number of very young women. Admittedly, one was an old maid of 20. When he killed most of the people, he convinced himself that it was best for them or that a lot of other people didn't like them either.
Often, he thought they probably should die just because they had character traits that were not acceptable - mostly exactly like his own - only he didn't seem to realize that.
It is a very long book with lots of names, most tend to be recalled at various times in the book - as nicknames, initials, relationships (in-laws - of which there are many) and others that can slow recognition.
If I didn't have many more appealing books to read, Matthiessen's non-fiction books might be more interesting to me.
The writing reminds me of Faulkner.
The writing is excellent, the subject sad and disgusting. Mr. Watson was a battered child both physically and mentally. This can not excuse all of his actions and the delusional way he dealt with his decisions in life. He proceeded to marry and have children with a number of very young women. Admittedly, one was an old maid of 20. When he killed most of the people, he convinced himself that it was best for them or that a lot of other people didn't like them either.
Often, he thought they probably should die just because they had character traits that were not acceptable - mostly exactly like his own - only he didn't seem to realize that.
It is a very long book with lots of names, most tend to be recalled at various times in the book - as nicknames, initials, relationships (in-laws - of which there are many) and others that can slow recognition.
If I didn't have many more appealing books to read, Matthiessen's non-fiction books might be more interesting to me.
The writing reminds me of Faulkner.
October 5, 2013
In this novel, the third book in the Watson Trilogy, Mr. Matthiessen gives us E.J. Watson's first-person narration of his own lifestory, from his birth in South Carolina to the moment before he is gunned-down by his friends and neighbors. Unlike the previous mega-rashomon-like narratives that presented various stories of Watson's life and deeds in often conflicting, often exaggerated, always sensational terms, this book deflates the myth of Watson-the-terrible-outlaw and presents Watson-the-man-lover-father-friend-capitalist (albeit still a killer, but a rationalizing killer) from one point of view. Watson answers several nagging questions unanswered in the previous volumes such as 'who killed Belle Starr?'; 'what really happened to Les Cox?'; and, most unexpected and revelatory, Watson tells us who Henry Short really is.
The audiobook narration by George Guidall is, as always, superb.
The audiobook narration by George Guidall is, as always, superb.
December 17, 2018
I'm prouder that I finished this series than when I finished Stephen King's longer Dark Tower series. The reason is because those books--all of them--were enjoyable. Lost Man's River is one of the driest things I've ever read. But somehow, I pushed on. I did it. And I'm happy. This novel delivered. The depth of depravity and character as well as determination and grit shown in this novel were compelling and richly rewarding. There were moments when it got too much, such as the portions of the narrative when Watson begins to tell things he couldn't know unless he were omniscient--which you find out he isn't at the end--is one example. All in all, a great ending to a decent series. Really, just cut out Lost Man's River--unless you enjoy reading about an angry old man driving around Florida.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 8, 2010
The EJ Watson books are hard to forget. This is the second one I've read, after Killing Mr Watson, and the main character has become so compelling, complex and comprehensible that I want to know more about him even though he's doomed from the beginning and dead at the end. His all too human capacity to dig himself into a hopeless pit from which there can be no escape is tragic and real. Playing out this one person's virtues and vices and strngths and weaknesses in the frontier of the Florida Islands and in the company of the individuals there allows the reader a perspective on human nature and life and death.
April 3, 2011
Bone by Bone, the third of three books in a series, follows the life of Ed Watson from childhood in the post Civil War days in the South through adulthood in the early twentieth century. I love historical fiction/non fiction on the Civil War. This is probably one of the most well written book on those times that I have ever read. Nearly every page made me flinch at the painful everyday way of life after the war. The poverty, race relations, the toll taken by the war in so many ways. A great book. I must read the first two.
May 11, 2020
Bone by Bone (Edgar Watson #3) by Peter Matthiessen (Random House 1999) (Fiction). This is the final book in the Watson series, and it saves the last word for the old man himself. Edgar Watson tells his own story and clears up the myths and errors once and for all! This is a masterpiece! Peter Matthiessen later rewrote the trilogy as a single novel called Shadow Country. My rating: 9.5/10, finished 1999.
January 2, 2012
Stumbled across this, read the backcover and figured it would be a worthy read. Not being too bright until I later read the inside cover did I realize it's by the same author as 'Snow Leopard' which I read a couple months ago. I didn't even know he wrote fiction.
Peter Matthiessen has easily and quickly moved well into my top-10 favorite authors list.
One helluva writer.
Now to find the first two parts of the trilogy...
Peter Matthiessen has easily and quickly moved well into my top-10 favorite authors list.
One helluva writer.
Now to find the first two parts of the trilogy...
January 7, 2013
Bone by Bone was the third and finally book of a trilogy. As I investigated the reviews of others, I realized that this book would have been much more enjoyable knowing the background, and other perspectives that came from reading the first two books. However in the third, I immediately know the biased, first hand opinion of the main character. In the end I would not read this book again, and did not consider it to be a "page-turner"
July 1, 2023
I kept running across this book because of its popularity. So I thought I'd take a look and found out that even though it's a work of fiction, the main character was a real person. Decided to read it.
Battered boy turned mean racist murderer, not my favorite kind of story. However, it is very well written. The author kept my interest in a story about a very bad man told from the perspective of the very bad man.
Battered boy turned mean racist murderer, not my favorite kind of story. However, it is very well written. The author kept my interest in a story about a very bad man told from the perspective of the very bad man.
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