Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen

[George]

Please comment here on 'Shadow Country' by Peter Matthiessen, winner of the 2008 National Book Award. (My Macelhose Press Quercus London edition is 892 pages). This book is an abridgement and revision of three novels by Peter Matthiessen. 'Killing Mister Watson' (1990), 'Lost Man's River' (1997) and 'Bone by Bone' (1999).

[Irene]

The length of this one is intimidating. Maybe I can start over the coming weekend; it is a long holiday weekend in the States.

[George]

An engaging historical fiction novel reimagining E. J Watson, a Florida sugar planter and outlaw who was killed by his neighbors in 1910, in Chokoloskee, Florida. The novel explores issues of violence, family, and life in the early settlement of Western Florida in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Part one provides an overview and detail of E. J. Watson’s life. Part two is told in the third person. Lucius, Watson’s son, attempts to write a biography of his father’s life and death, seeking to separate fact from legend, hoping to exonerate E. J. Watson. Part three is the story of E. J. Watson from E. J. Watson’s perspective, told in the first person.

An interesting account of the frontiersmen and women trying to make a living in a harsh, swamp like wilderness area, where the legacies of slavery, Native Indian genocide, sexism, alcoholism, and violence are prevalent. I particularly liked the descriptions of Western Florida. The experience of living through hurricanes, having to be on the lookout for alligators, snakes and sharks that came upriver with the tide.

Watson is quite a character. Loses his first wife with the birth of their first child, ‘Sonborn’. Watson marries two more times. He sets up a sugar plantation. He flees when former workers on his plantation and squatters on his land turn up dead. Faces a trial, accused of murdering two men. The men of Chokoloskee believe Watson was the murderer. They gun him down.

A very worthwhile read. It’s an intriguing though unpleasant read about a strong, independent, violent and unlikeable man.

I thought the book was a little too long. Reading about the same events from three perspectives became a little tiresome through 'Book III' of the novel.

[Irene]

I am in book 2. I agree, a bit too long. Even book 1 felt long as the multiple voices gave us the same situations from varying perspectives. It is well written. Each of those voices in book 1 were unique. He made it credible how different people could regard a single person so differently, even his own children. But I am struggling to stay engaged. I don't want to pick up the book. Reading this is feeling a bit like required reading when I was in school.

[Irene]

Finally finished this at midnight. Anyone of these sections would have been fine. But it was far too long and repetative. It kept going over the same events. I realize that it wanted to show varying perspectives, but I stopped caring. And the violence, the sexual exploitation of young girls, the horrid treatment of Native Americans and Blacks, the physical abuse of children, it was far too much. Matthiessen probably portrayed that world correctly, but I did not want to spend an entire week there. Hope next month's title is more pleasant.

[George]

I agree with your comments. Reading one of the books would have been enough for me.