Shadow Country (Modern Library)

It takes some time to get into it, especially learning all the characters that are introduced in the beginning; however, it is so worth it once it all unfolds. The characters and perspectives on that era and especially that region are fascinating. I was so sad when it ended.

Shadow Country -- Peter Mathiason. a very unusual book. Very long... total of 3 "books", each addressing a different era and set of characters.... Will be of special interest to those with interests in american history... post Civil War to about 1925, and dealing with nature/ecology/conservation (Florida everglades), black/white race relations, trans-generational patterns of violance, father-son complexities. Mathiason's expertise as a naturalist is impressive. At times it is beautifully written, fascinating descriptions of interpersonal and inter-family relatioships, sometimes drags with extended sections not directly in the flow of the essential story. This is a book I will never forget, and will undoubtedly return to for certain parts. Not for the faint-hearted.

This book is going to be an interesting read. Has a lot of sterling reviews. I can't wait to start it. Book arrived in pristine condition, within the allowable time period, as the seller described. I would gladly do buisness with again.

As a native Floridian, I'm always interested in Florida history. And this was well worth the time. Some of Watson's escapades are questionable, but the 3 different books clear up most questions. I honestly had no idea what went on in Ten Thousand Islands. I didn't want it to end. Great read!

I listen to audiobooks while driving, and the narrator on this audio had such a whispery kind of voice, I couldn't hear him over the sounds of traffic and the car noises (my car is not an expensive sound proof type). It wasn't a matter of volume, as I could easily turn it up, but his voice just kept fading in and out. Had to give it away unread (or unlistened to).

This book describes the culture and hard scramble life in developing the Everglades. Honor and family a were still traditions that were skewed during the post reconstruction days in the south. Everyone can have a different perspective on events

I finished the book, and wanted to start again, to see the beginning in the light of the end. It is brilliantly constructed and written. The first part is difficult to slog through because the pieces have not been joined. Persist, and you will reap the rewards. Later, it turns lyrical.

Great book, well written. Peter Matthiessen has crafted his story well. However, the book is narrated by the individual characters in the book, and each one calls the others by different names. I almost feel a need for a "who's who" guide.

Peter Matthiessen has created a fascinating world that is hard to leave. Setting aside time to read cannot work with this book it is thoroughly compelling with the voices of the characters keeping one involved in the story longer than planned.

This novel will make you think about good and evil and how people treat each other and what goes on in their thinking. This is the best novel I have read in a long while. I would recommend this book to anyone that enjoys a stimulating book: one that makes you think about the characters after finishing the book.

I almost never put down a book without finishing, but I just can't slog through this thing. I've picked it up & put it down I don't know how many times trying to get through it, but I just can't. Don't care about the characters, don't have enough interest in them to like or dislike them, have a hard time keeping whose realated to who straight, & that makes it even harder. It got so many good reviews I was really thinking it should be wonderful, but it's just not coming through for me.

Ugh! Though I enjoy historical novels and nonfiction,I couldn't wait for this book to be over. Too many characters to keep straight, and being my first Kindle read, it was cumbersome for me to search back to keep them straight. On the plus side, the three perspectives were interesting and though the finale was apparent from the very beginning, there was tension and uncertainty. Did E.J. Watson really commit the crimes or was he just a victim of circumstance? Also the racial and environmental impact of the white settlers was insightful. Negative, was the length of the book and lack of development of characters. By the end I just didn't care any more and the other books on my Kindle were enticing me to quit, but I saw it through to the bitter end.

I have been reading Peter Matthiessen's work, fiction and non-fiction, since the early 70s. Before the release of "Shadow Country", I bought and read the three novels of the Watson trilogy. I may own every book he's ever written, in fact, including his works on Africa and South America, and his early fiction, as well as "The Snow Leopard" and all the rest. Matthiessen is a writer of phenomenal brilliance, capable of evoking place and atmosphere like no one else. Lines of his -- entire passages sometimes -- lodge in my head and must be hauled out for review every so often. I'm thinking in particular of his luminescent "Far Tortuga", which is as much poetry as it is prose.
With "Shadow Country", however, one annoying tic about this writer's work resurfaces again and again. I'm talking about his infantile politics, his asinine pronouncements about capitalism and the environment, his apparent profound loathing for the country of his birth, which as far as I can see has been very good to him. Earth to Peter: the egret is alive, and well, and extremely numerous all over Florida. Paging Mr. Matthiessen: capitalism puts food in your mouth. Excuuuuuse me -- only the slimmest possible minority of humans on the planet long to live in undisturbed primeval wilderness. The obtuse immaturity of his views, his insistence that the environmental End! is Near! is upon us Right Now! reminds me of the Russell Brand spoof video in which the outraged singer collars people on the street, insisting that they "dooooo something." I start to wonder if this man, now in his 80s, has read a newspaper in fifty years. Make that sixty: to Matthiessen, it's always 1950-something, and Man is determined to conquer the poor, prostrated, helpless earth, to bend it to his iron racist, sexist will. Oh the animality!
Hello??!! Hasn't this rugged, safari-coat-wearing, tanned and grizzled adventurer left his New York apartment since the JFK years? Of course I know he has -- he has been everywhere, done everything, carried the butchered quarters of a zebra in his Land Rover (I wish I could say that), uncovered antiquities in the the store, and put up with George Schaller's company for months on end -- and yet "Shadow Country", for all its magnificence, sometimes reads as if it were written by a particularly bright and brainwashed middle-school student. Consider, for example, his penchant for putting Weighty Statements into the mostly toothless mouths of his backwoods characters: what are the chances these folks would agree with Mr. Paris Review and Elaine's table at the Algonquin? Nothing is as forced, as sad, and as uninteresting as preachiness -- especially when the remedies for the set of problems that set Mr. Matthiessen's hands a-wringing has been in place for decades. To hear Matthiessen whining on, you would think this country was being run by a syndicate of mid-Victorian Kiplingites, or a passel of Ayn Rand fans. Although I no longer vote Democratic, I applaud President Bill Clinton for setting aside thousands of acres of wilderness and in general strengthening environmental law -- but perhaps Peter Matthiessen has not heard of Monica's ex. I can't think of any other explanation for his willful ignorance of acknowledged historical fact.
Listen to this: Carrie Watson Langford, the protagonist's daughter, married at 13, literate but hardly college-bred, gives forth as follows: "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 their beef while paying their lawyers to cheat it of its taxes."
All together now: Awwwww[...] That's not very nice of them! Daddy, make them stop!
Matthiessen's "some" is a straw man, close kin to the one consistently evoked by the present tenant in the White House. Who is this mysterious "some" and how did the teenage bride know about its crimes in such detail? Why on earth would a young girl carrying Edgar Watson's DNA know or care about such arrant nonsense? Why on earth and in heaven would she express herself with such antagonism and bitter defensiveness? One wants to scream and fling the book across the room -- except that that's not very practical with a Kindle.
I want to reiterate that Matthiessen rates very high in my personal exalted pantheon of writers. I would buy anything he wrote -- I have in fact bought "Shadow Country" twice, in hardback and in a Kindle edition -- and I would return to it, as I return to this book and his many others. No one can write about nature the way he can - no one - and furthermore make it seem effortless. Such astonishing talent makes his lapses in reason all the more noticeable. It is really too bad that so much of his work is marred by narrow, childish, blind, and worst of all, outmoded thinking. Judging by the popularity of his books, Matthiessen must be a pretty "prosperous businessman" himself. Et tu, Peter?

Too many characters and too many pages. That’s my assessment of this ponderous 2008 National Book Award winner. Each chapter of Book I has a first-person narrator, and I could not keep them or their families or their location in southwest Florida straight, even with the map provided. The story takes place primarily in an area called the Ten Thousand Islands between the late 1800s and early 1900s. The main character is Edgar Watson, an imposing but affable man who may also have committed and gotten away with several murders. He’s a crack shot, and everyone wants to stay on his good side. I had a hard time just trying to keep up with his wives, mistresses, and offspring. Book II is a little easier to follow, with third person narration. Lucius, Watson’s son, is on a mission to set the record straight by penning a biography of his father. The third and final section is Edgar Watson’s first person narrative in which he defends some of his more heinous actions and shrugs off the rest. A strange but lethal combination of heartbreak and ambition is his undoing, along with a penchant for hiring known murderers as foremen. He is unjustly accused of several murders early in life but then seems bent on living up to his undeserved reputation. He’s smart, resilient, and full of life, but this book is not lively at all. It paints a bleak picture of life in that area at that time, complete with rampant racism, senseless eradication of wildlife, unbridled violence in the name of progress, and widespread alcoholism. I appreciate the realism and the writing style, but the novel just crawls along at a snail’s (or alligator’s) pace.

I have been reading Peter Matthiessen's work, fiction and non-fiction, since the early 70s. Before the release of "Shadow Country", I bought and read the three novels of the Watson trilogy. I may own every book he's ever written, in fact, including his works on Africa and South America, and his early fiction, as well as "The Snow Leopard" and all the rest. Matthiessen is a writer of phenomenal brilliance, capable of evoking place and atmosphere like no one else. Lines of his -- entire passages sometimes -- lodge in my head and must be hauled out for review every so often. I'm thinking in particular of his luminescent "Far Tortuga", which is as much poetry as it is prose.
With "Shadow Country", however, one annoying tic about this writer's work resurfaces again and again. I'm talking about his infantile politics, his asinine pronouncements about capitalism and the environment, his apparent profound loathing for the country of his birth, which as far as I can see has been very good to him. Earth to Peter: the egret is alive, and well, and extremely numerous all over Florida. Paging Mr. Matthiessen: capitalism puts food in your mouth. Excuuuuuse me -- only the slimmest possible minority of humans on the planet long to live in undisturbed primeval wilderness. The obtuse immaturity of his views, his insistence that the environmental End! is Near! is upon us Right Now! reminds me of the Russell Brand spoof video in which the outraged singer collars people on the street, insisting that they "dooooo something." I start to wonder if this man, now in his 80s, has read a newspaper in fifty years. Make that sixty: to Matthiessen, it's always 1950-something, and Man is determined to conquer the poor, prostrated, helpless earth, to bend it to his iron racist, sexist will. Oh the animality!
Hello??!! Hasn't this rugged, safari-coat-wearing, tanned and grizzled adventurer left his New York apartment since the JFK years? Of course I know he has -- he has been everywhere, done everything, carried the butchered quarters of a zebra in his Land Rover (I wish I could say that), uncovered antiquities in the the store, and put up with George Schaller's company for months on end -- and yet "Shadow Country", for all its magnificence, sometimes reads as if it were written by a particularly bright and brainwashed middle-school student. Consider, for example, his penchant for putting Weighty Statements into the mostly toothless mouths of his backwoods characters: what are the chances these folks would agree with Mr. Paris Review and Elaine's table at the Algonquin? Nothing is as forced, as sad, and as uninteresting as preachiness -- especially when the remedies for the set of problems that set Mr. Matthiessen's hands a-wringing has been in place for decades. To hear Matthiessen whining on, you would think this country was being run by a syndicate of mid-Victorian Kiplingites, or a passel of Ayn Rand fans. Although I no longer vote Democratic, I applaud President Bill Clinton for setting aside thousands of acres of wilderness and in general strengthening environmental law -- but perhaps Peter Matthiessen has not heard of Monica's ex. I can't think of any other explanation for his willful ignorance of acknowledged historical fact.
Listen to this: Carrie Watson Langford, the protagonist's daughter, married at 13, literate but hardly college-bred, gives forth as follows: "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 their beef while paying their lawyers to cheat it of its taxes."
All together now: Awwwww[...] That's not very nice of them! Daddy, make them stop!
Matthiessen's "some" is a straw man, close kin to the one consistently evoked by the present tenant in the White House. Who is this mysterious "some" and how did the teenage bride know about its crimes in such detail? Why on earth would a young girl carrying Edgar Watson's DNA know or care about such arrant nonsense? Why on earth and in heaven would she express herself with such antagonism and bitter defensiveness? One wants to scream and fling the book across the room -- except that that's not very practical with a Kindle.
I want to reiterate that Matthiessen rates very high in my personal exalted pantheon of writers. I would buy anything he wrote -- I have in fact bought "Shadow Country" twice, in hardback and in a Kindle edition -- and I would return to it, as I return to this book and his many others. No one can write about nature the way he can - no one - and furthermore make it seem effortless. Such astonishing talent makes his lapses in reason all the more noticeable. It is really too bad that so much of his work is marred by narrow, childish, blind, and worst of all, outmoded thinking. Judging by the popularity of his books, Matthiessen must be a pretty "prosperous businessman" himself. Et tu, Peter?

Too many characters and too many pages. That’s my assessment of this ponderous 2008 National Book Award winner. Each chapter of Book I has a first-person narrator, and I could not keep them or their families or their location in southwest Florida straight, even with the map provided. The story takes place primarily in an area called the Ten Thousand Islands between the late 1800s and early 1900s. The main character is Edgar Watson, an imposing but affable man who may also have committed and gotten away with several murders. He’s a crack shot, and everyone wants to stay on his good side. I had a hard time just trying to keep up with his wives, mistresses, and offspring. Book II is a little easier to follow, with third person narration. Lucius, Watson’s son, is on a mission to set the record straight by penning a biography of his father. The third and final section is Edgar Watson’s first person narrative in which he defends some of his more heinous actions and shrugs off the rest. A strange but lethal combination of heartbreak and ambition is his undoing, along with a penchant for hiring known murderers as foremen. He is unjustly accused of several murders early in life but then seems bent on living up to his undeserved reputation. He’s smart, resilient, and full of life, but this book is not lively at all. It paints a bleak picture of life in that area at that time, complete with rampant racism, senseless eradication of wildlife, unbridled violence in the name of progress, and widespread alcoholism. I appreciate the realism and the writing style, but the novel just crawls along at a snail’s (or alligator’s) pace.

Having myself fished, camped, canoed, worked, played and visited just about all of the geographical settings in this story, and having known Floridians with several of the family names that figure prominently in it, allowed Peter Matthiesen to tell this story to me with a voice of unparalleled credibility. This is historical fiction down, dirty, and in your face.
In “Shadow Country” Mr. Matthiesen uses a spare narrative style uniquely his own to relate the story/legend of Edgar Watson, an Everglades planter reputed to have murdered in excess of 50 persons. By the time one finishes this book, one nearly believes he can see through the mists of the legends and myths as well as the mists lifting off the Everglades to have a good idea of just who Edgar Watson was. That idea, of course is ephemeral. One will reflect on Bloody Watson long after putting this book aside.
In “Shadow Country,” the author tells this story three times. Then, when you finally finish the third telling, you know that you will be reading it again. In Book 1 the story is told in a series of recollections of the 30 plus people who witnessed 20 of his neighbors gun him down upon his stepping ashore on Chokoloskee Island after the hurricane of 1910. These voices spoken in a Florida cracker dialect add a compelling authenticity to the story. The book begins with the killing and from there explores the events, prejudices, fears, and intemperance that precipitated it.
The second book tells the story of a son Edgar, Lucius. Lucius Watson is an historian, educated at the “state university.” He spends his life trying to distill the truth out the grist of the legend of Bloody Watson. In the course of this quest he puts his own life in the sights of the same guns that slew his father, when he compiles a list of those who were on the shore at Chokoloskee that day.
The third, and most compelling telling of the tale is a first person autobiographical narrative in the voice of Edgar. Starting at age nine when his father leaves to fight in the Confederate army winding through all the events that led up to the events that led to his death at the hands of his neighbors.
Recommended: Highly

I stumbled upon the legend of Edgar "Bloody" Watson completely by chance. Looking at maps of my home state, I'd always noticed Everglades City hanging on to the bottom of Florida's Gulf coast like a shipwreck survivor holding on to a rescue line. So when the family paid a visit to Everglades National Park last June, we took a side trip down there, and then continued on south to the very end of the road: the island of Chokoloskee.

Ted Smallwood's store still stands on the southwest corner of this southwest corner of Florida. It's a museum now, with the merchandise kept just the way it was when it finally closed as a working general store in the 1950s. There's an unsettlingly lifelike mannequin of ol' Ted himself, sitting in his rocking chair, forever holding his flyswatter. And there's a sign near the back porch mentioning that, as told in the book "Killing Mister Watson", Edgar Watson was shot dead by his neighbors right outside where the gentle waves lap upon the mud and mangroves.

The Smallwood Store & Museum didn't sell Matthiessen's books at the time (they do now), so I found a copy of "Killing Mr. Watson" at my local library. It was great, and I sought out the next book in the series immediately upon finishing it. That's when I discovered "Shadow Country", which is a one-volume "retelling" of the original Watson trilogy, and bought it instead.

The distilled, condensed, and rewritten origin of "Shadow Country" is mainly a strength - it varies by sections. Book one is based on "Killing Mr. Watson". The original was excellent, and this version is even better - well written, well paced, well-rounded characters, well polished to perfection.

This section has the same structure as the original stand-alone book on which its based. Various characters (mostly based on real people) from the Ten Thousand Islands tell Watson's story from their point of view and in their own varying voices. It's like reading transcripts of interviews from a very good documentary, which is not an easy form to pull off. Matthiessen is up to the task. Both Watson and the interviewees come to vivid life, and the deepening sense of doom rolls in like a crackling Florida thunderstorm. Despite knowing the basic story already from the original book, I could not put it down.

Book two, however, does not fare quite so well. I did not read the original book two ("Lost Man's River"), in which Watson's adult son tries to discover who his infamous father really was. However, this section feels highly condensed; a rushed bus tour of the original middle book of the trilogy. Years go by in a single paragraph; characters appear and disappear without having time to do much. Worst of all for an English teacher, the author often falls into telling the reader what's going on instead of showing as he did in book one. The prose slows down occasionally to that captivating rough, spare, and poetic style that graced the first section, only to speed away without warning to the next well-crafted scene, a journey which might take several pages and months of story time.

Counter-intuitively, I think that book two would have been better served with further cuts of sub-plots that are not given enough space to develop, allowing the narrative to focus on more effective and more important sections. And while it would require a change to the plot and/or real events, it would better serve as a link between books one and three if Watson's truth-seeking son would have somehow found his father's journal, which is the (fictional) source of book three.

Perhaps the biggest reason why the second section of "Shadow Country" is not as interesting as the first or third sections is that "Bloody" Watson himself does not make a (live) appearance. This problem is resoundingly corrected in book three, which is his long hinted-at memoir, written in powerful first person. The narrative goes back to his early childhood as this complex and always-surprising character tells his life story, explaining his violent past and stating his side of the events we'd heard in other voices earlier in the book. Watson is a gripping storyteller, and once his voice takes over, it doesn't let go until he's well and done with you... and his neighbors are done with him right where the book began, out behind Ted Smallwood's store. Riding shotgun (pardon the pun) with Edgar Watson is often shocking and sometimes uncomfortable, but it's one hell of an intense ride.

Overall, I highly recommend this book. The almost-true plot is fascinating, the characters (except for some in book two) are real and captivating, and the writing is generally as good as you'd expect when a master craftsman spends years on a labor of love. As someone who's personally explored southwest Florida, it's very impressive how Matthiessen profoundly captures the sense of the Ten Thousand Islands, an area that is still wild and isolated and just wants to be left alone. But for a more aggressive rewrite/edit of the middle section, "Shadow Country" might be the best literary novel I've ever read.

I purchased this book simply because it won the National Book Award. I was very daunted by the pure size of the novel. I approached it like I would approach eating broccoli. It was something that I might not necessarily enjoy but would be good for me.

Once I passed the first 30 pages or so, I looked forward to reading it every day. What a superb study of character, perception, point of view, American history, the environment, Florida etc.

This is such a meaty, worthwhile piece of writing. I truly loved every minute of my time with this book and was sorry when it ended.

It is structured in 3 parts.

Book I tells the story of EJ Watson who was killed by his neighbours in SW Florida in 1910. It gives his story from multiple points of view and many of the narrators are the ones that killed him. Their perceptions of him are based on some truth and many rumours. He appeared to be quite a villain who they rightly ridded the world of.

Book II is from the perspective of his son Lucius who becomes obsessed with the legend of his dead father and is hopeful that the many murders attributed to "Bloody" Watson are untrue. He meets resistance and many people don't want the past dredged up.

The third book is from EJ Watson's point of view and it is the perfect conclusion. We learn a lot more about what really happened though we are conscious that Watson himself may not always admit everything. Watson does do many bad things but of course his reputation causes many things to be blamed on him that he did not do. Although there are murders, Watson really sees himself as someone who tried to do good.

I found this to be one of the most complete and fascinating character studies I've ever read. The character is compelling and discovering the truth piece by piece was truly enjoyable.

This was originally a 1500 page book that the publisher released as three separate novels. Matthiessen was never happy with this being a trilogy and spent several years bringing it to a single 900 page volume. I have not read the original 3 novels and understand that some readers clearly believe the 1500 page version is superior. I certainly found this rendering to be a superior piece of literature though can't comment on it compared to the original.

I can't recommend this book highly enough.

Peter Matthiessen is a hugely respected American writer who, among other feats, co-founded the Paris Review and managed to snatch the National Book Award three times. He was also a renowned environmental activitist, a passion that may well inform the beautiful descriptive passages that “Shadow Country” offers.

The book itself is a huge thing, clocking at almost 1′000 pages which result from the reworking of three previous novels, originally published as stand-alones.

I’ll start with the bad news: “Shadow Country” is far from being a page-tuner (don’t believe the cover blurbs, which, as it usually happens, tend to be slightly partial to the writer). I would go so far as to say that the first two “books” are a drag and could have done with hundreds of pages less.

And yet, and yet,… First of all you have the beautiful writing, which manages to be so without using high-flying verbiage or obnoxious post-lit tricks (well, you have one on the last page actually). For lovers of literature this must count for something!

Then you have the sheer lenght of the novel, which means that you get to spend a lot of time with the main character (more on this later), resulting in some sort of literary affection.

Thirdly, and more fundamentally, you have the last book, which is more plot-driven than the previous parts and, in my humble opinion, greatly benefits from that.

As for the plot itself, “Shadow Country” is a fictionalized account of the life and deeds of a real-life outlaw called EJ Watson. Set in the Everglandes around the turn of the century, the book gives a very nuanced portrayal of an admittedly complex character.

Watson is an outlaw who has committed, by his own recknoning, some terrible deeds yet his personality sits in a grey area and the reader cannot help but find almost sympathetic to him at times.

When the novel begins, we already know how it’s gonna end, with Watson being gunned down by a posse of its former neighbours. The first book is about the first-hand accounts of those involved, the second focuses on Watson’s son, Lucius, investigating his father’s death, while the third, by far the most enjoyable, is Watson’s telling of his own story.

As I wrote above, this is not an easy read but once you are immersed in it, it will slowly work its magic on you and, eventually, you will find the experience rewarding.

The research and writing are exemplary; for that it made it to 4 stars. Yet this is one l-o-n-g and somewhat slow read.

Shadow County (SC) is very Faulkneresque in that it retells the story multiple times (3) and from the perspectives of many different characters. Matthiessen pulls this off expertly.

Part of my problem is that by the time you read book 3 - the one most reviewers like best - you're into the third telling of the story, so you know what happens, just maybe not why. I found the third book a bit of a slog because of this and was relieved to finally reach the end. It does have a great last page though.

SC tells the legend of EJ Watson. EJ is a capable farmer and a shrewd, if ruthless, businessman in the two decades around 1900. He flees to the undeveloped and relatively lawless southern Florida Gulf coast to avoid the law and establish a plantation. The problem is that dead bodies seem to accumulate in his vicinity - often. His culpability is the mystery of the first book and the subject of the second and third.

I liked book 1 the best. Each mini-chapter is narrated by a different character (neighbors, acquaintances and relatives of EJ Watson) and the reader must assemble the narrative and try to ascertain what truth is. The title of the chapter is the name of the narrator, a device I enjoyed once I figured it out. The author did a great job giving each character a distinctive voice. The action is not totally linear, but it doesn't jump around in time greatly: reminiscent of the first book of "The Sound and the Fury", but not as disjointed. I enjoyed the puzzle.

Book 2 concerns EJ Watson's son Lucius who is obsessed with his father's death and decides to write a "true" history. Your reaction to Book 2 will depend on how sympathetic you are to Lucius. It raises interesting questions about the process of history, the involvement of the historian and the dilemma of facing unwanted truths.

Book 3 is EJ Watson's chilling memoir. I don't envy Matthiessen, as a writer, having to inhabit the mind of this ruthless, unlikeable character. That he draws you into this repugnant character - and world - shows his skill as a writer. EJ can be self-critical - unlike his psychopathic cohorts Les Cox and Dutchy Melville - but his introspection rarely results in self-improvement. EJ is the master of rationalization, especially in hindsight. In the end, self-loathing may play a role in EJ's demise or maybe not; maybe he just plain wears himself out.

The author does not gloss over any of the negatives of this time and place: overt and systemic racism, environmental destruction, political and legal corruption, frontier justice. You will cringe often while reading through nearly 900 pages of a story that centers on characters that are beyond redemption. The few characters that you sympathize with are treated cruelly and are scarred in various ways by the main characters. Not a "fun" read in any sense, but compelling if you can stand to inhabit this world.

There are fictions with a little history in them, and there are historical fictions. This book is the latter, cast with actual historical people. Being real, they are all imperfect and far more complex than fabricated characters in the typical "historical" fiction, especially the main character of Edgar Watson. The author's research is monumental. The story is real-life, graphic, gritty, and the characters fully developed, noble, flawed, and conflicted. This book is not an easy read, it's real, and stays with you long after you finish it. A true masterpiece.

_Shadow Country_ is a reworking of three novels Mr. Matthiessen had previously written about the allegedly infamous criminal, Edgar J. Watson, who owned a sugar plantation in the Florida Everglades. The novel covers the period from the Civil War to shortly after the turn of the 19th century. In developing his novel, Mathiessen discusses the plight of former slaves who resided in slave states in the years prior to and shortly after the Civil War. The author analyzes the efforts of white to adjust to the differences in language used by white southerners to refer to black people in the antebellum and postbellum periods. He also explores changes in relationships in these two eras. Matthiessen develops the interaction of erstwhile slave Henry Shorter with Mr. Watson, his former master. The author also works in the relationships of American Indians with these two groups and develops in great detail a number of family relationships covering several generations.

The novel is told in great detail, especially regarding character development of the three aforementioned ethnic groups. The author also discusses the interpersonal relationships of people in all three groups and the consequences thereof. One major issue in this complex but stunning novel is the lack of trust white members of the community have in Mr. Watson, whom many consider a murderer.

The book is extremely well written, especially regarding the dialect of its people. The ending will throw many readers of this amazing novel through a loop. The only problem I had with the book is that it too often felt as if I was reading a textbook rather than a novel.

Shadow Country is Peter Matthiessen's reworked rendering of his earlier trilogy of historical fiction relating the life of the brutal Florida pioneer Edgar J. Watson. (This version still consists of three "books" and runs to almost 900 pages. I did not read the earlier version and so cannot offer comparisons between the two.)

Shadow Country is almost entirely set in the 1890's and early 1900's in a frontier region not widely known - the Ten Thousand Islands of south Gulf Coast Florida (the Everglades area). The area was absurdly remote at the time and presented such daunting challenges and dangers to any settlers that it was in fact nearly unsettled. And nearly all who did settle there were running or hiding from something, such as the law or deserted family members. Or they were just deeply anti-social. Aside from its remoteness, the area had almost nothing to recommend itself (I usually the qualified `almost nothing' in the vent that I think of some redeeming feature). It is brutally hot and humid, resistant to agriculture, possessed of dangerous animals (on sea and land), prone to calamitous storms, infested with mosquitoes, and inhabited by a large proportion of suddenly violent men as well as sociopathic criminals. This is the place Edgar J. Watson chooses to live.

Within the first ten pages of Book One, the reader confronts this sentence: "Oh Lord God," she cries. "They are killing Mr. Watson!" (Killing off the main character in the opening pages of a 900-page work of fiction proves Matthiessen is either brave or foolish.) The story is told with a dozen different narrators recalling Watson's arrival and life in the islands. Matthiessen's remarkable ability to produce so many distinctive voices makes this book incredibly readable. These people can all tell a story (they are in good practice life on the islands providing so much idle time). Matthiessen does not, however, make them all tell the same story; differences of viewpoint produce a fascinating ambiguity.

That Watson is an exceptional man is undoubted. Beginning with nothing, he manages to set himself up as a power to be reckoned with. He is also grandiose, violent, and merciless. But is he a murderer (several times over)? Opinions vary. He drinks too much. He loses what he has and what he wants and what he values. It is a hard life in a hard place. Edgar Watson was a hard man in dire need of some education and civilization, neither of which could be found in any quantity in the islands.

Book Two traces the story of Lucius Watson's "obsessive quest for the truth about his father" (NYT Review). It is the 1920's and Lucius is writing a history of his father's life (he has a doctorate in history), traveling to courthouse archives and interviewing long-forgotten family members. But he also has "the list" of the armed men who gunned down the elder Watson. The list naturally makes people nervous and some of them are quite dangerous. Book Two reveals some fascinating history, including the mostly unsavory operation of the law in south Florida, such as sheriff's renting the labor of black inmates to business interests (and pocketing much of the money). For more on that practice see Douglas Blackmon's stunning new history Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II.

Book Three presents Edgar himself as the narrator of his life story from a child in South Carolina to various stopping places in Florida, Arkansas, and finally the Thousand Islands. The brutality of his childhood, the ready violence of white men toward blacks and of his own father toward him, makes Edgar's later actions more understandable person, if not justified. He develops a rigid personal code that demands recompense in full for any slight. He attempts a justification that reveals some complexity and contradictions, but falls short of the mark.

Shadow Country is an American epic of a mysterious historical character (yes, Edgar Watson really lived and died in the islands). The writing is at times exquisite. The story it tells is often brutal or just about plain hard life. The writing is compelling, the reading can be draining.

One of Shadow Country's most intriguing aspects may also be its greatest challenge to the reader, as its multiplicity of narrative voices threatens to swamp (pun intended) the reader with its constantly shifting perspective on who-why-how a late 1800s mangrove-swamp settler comes to be killed by those who know him best and fear him most. Keeping up with which character is narrating which chapter is especially frustrating in the opening volume, until (unless?) one allows their stories to wash over one's consciousness like the Gulf Coastal tidewaters the story is set in. At that point it almost doesn't matter which character is telling which part of the story anymore, as the sensation develops of overhearing a late-night, grown-up kitchen-conversation down the hall from one's bedroom.

In the forward to his three-volumes-edited-into-one massaive novel, Matthiessen claims there is "no message" present for the reader, though surely his foregrounding of the costs and varieties of racism throughout the tome is meant to convey more than local color. Similarly, a "God-is-absent-in-the-world-save-for-a-twisted-presence-in-its-crucifying-moments" stance speaks against a claim of positing no message, even if that message is one of longing after (or resenting) an apparently missing God. Take and read at the risk of becoming entangled in a mass of motives and machinations by the author and his characters, or leave it to whistle (if you dare) past a telling swampland of American cultural history. [A side note is Indigo Girl's song "Salty South," written, says Amy Ray, with "the unconquerable swamps, the indomitable Natives, and the incessant tides" of Matthiesen's Florida in mind.]

Sometimes a novel's size and topic may forever dissuade the reader from even looking past the binder. This is one such book.

Then the award winning novel returned to my attention, as this distillation of three previous novels was less of a tome, and more manageable - only over 900 pages about the turn of the 19th century southwestern Florida frontier.

And, to the National Book Award jury, I deliver a heartfelt thanks. For without their delivery of the 2008 prize to mysterious Peter Matthiessen, I would never have had the courage to pick up this gigantic venture into this wetlands whodunit.

Based on true people during a time when few recorded items existed - the population between Tampa and Key West was LESS than the 17,000 population of Key West at the time of the book's rendering - Matthiessen probably worked off of letters and sundry other irregular sources for historical accounting of the facts contained herein.

But, this is not about reciting history to the reader. Instead, this is rich dialogue, thick as the cane sugar produced by the characters, which is bantered between these outlaw-like civilians. Similar to the dark rhetoric of Faulkner, Matthiessen has over 80 percent of the novel be seen through the mind of the two main characters (a father and his son) or those who speak about them.

Richer dialect does not exist. This is mastery. Someone a century later has delivered a tour de force about his grandfather's and father's generations. And, making Southwestern Florida an interesting novel is one tough assignment - making a 920-page book interesting is a titantic proportioned accomplishment.

Leviathan-like, this book may be to Southern Florida what Gone with the wind is to antebellum southerners. Except, here the characters are more accurately depicted for being much less than saints, and much more the animalistic survivors they had to be to live year after year in the boggy, swampy, mosquito-infested hell of the 10,000 islands which 20th century man has made into solid land with dredging and systematic canals.

This book is worthy of its praise. But, I admit to my bias - I live in Southern Florida and know the areas discussed for their present-day purpose. This historical accounting of the same was both enlightening and educational. This is a must read for novel lovers, especially Florida's coastal domiciles.

I embarked on this adventure of 912 pages hoping that my interest would at least allow me to finish it in a reasonable amount of time.
I could not believe what I discovered within these pages.
Characters and circumstances I have never met in any other read. Prose descriptive as a movie with both the antebellum and post Civil War presented as if I were there.
As much as I wanted a different ending, the conclusion was proper given the choices the author had.
Gritty and painful to read as we're the times. Slavery was not over when the War ended by any means in Florida.
I cannot say enough about this book. Truly a milestone in writing for me.

Peter Matthiessen is a fine novelist, but there are a lot of those. What distinguishes his fiction is his understanding of wilderness. In his novel about the store Indians, At Play in the Fields of the Lord, his story is not that different from a lot of others-- influenced by Graham Greene, W.H. Hudson, Joseph Conrad and drawing on anthropologists' accounts of living with Indians for long periods, since he didn't do that. But he did explore the the store wilderness, and that really comes across in the novel to make it special. The the store is an active part of the book.
The Shadow Country is a fine continuation of the Mark Twain and William Faulkner tradition of southern U.S. literature, with lots of insight into the characters and their lives. But although the book is set in the Florida Everglades, Matthiessen somehow does not make wilderness come alive as he does in other novels. The Everglades seem inert compared to the the store. Maybe that's partly because the Everglades are more damaged and exploited than the the store. But they're still fascinating wilderness when you're there. Matthiessen just doesn't convey that, so the novel seems without a heart in that way, at least compared to his other novels. Too bad.

At a Southern Florida backwater in 1910, the charismatic, yet fierce Edward Watson was gunned down by his neighbors in the name of self defense. Was he a mass murderer long overdue for justice or a misunderstood law abiding farmer? This biographical epic novel, based on a real life persona, explores the complex character of Ed Watson in the vivid back-drop of early Florida Everglades frontier settlement and entangled deep South racial relationship. A consummate creation of fiction and history.

Peter Matthiessen's Shadow Country just might be the great American novel. A nutshell description that grants this masterpiece its due is that it rivals Faulkner - in gravity of themes, complexity of moral vision and rootedness of place - but with a 75% reduction in confusion of narrative form and style.

I read the trilogy a decade ago and am now relishing rereading his single volume revision. Knowing this is something I will probably reread every 5 or 10 years, I bought the hardcover version.

A word (but not a caveat) for women: although this is "manly" fiction in subject matter - concerned as it is with the precarious existence of pioneer settlers in the ruthless, wild, wild West of the Florida frontier around 1900 - the multiple narrators, many of them female, present nuanced, detailed, contrasting and contradictory depictions of people and events. So, though this is perhaps masculine fiction, it is not Hemingway, in style or substance.

I had previously read the three separate books that were published about ten years ago, and didn't know what to expect from this book, although didn't expect it to be much different, but being a fan of Peter M.'s writing, I thought I'd give it a whirl, and I'm glad I did. This new version is stunning. It is a completely new book, rewritten, cut and retold in ways that make sense (Peter M. has said that this version is what he had in mind all along, but his publisher convinced him to split it into three books originally). Shadow Country takes you to a time and place--the backwaters of Florida 100 years ago--that is as foreign to most of us as the moon. There is the usual Matthiessen beautiful natural imagery: the closely observed details of the Florida everglades and the gulf coast, but there is also a more masterful examination of the dark heart of man than in any previous book of his. It is Conrad-like in it's sweep. Although the book won the National Book Award, the publisher didn't promote the book at all, probably thinking it was too long, too dense and too difficult a read for most people, with it's many characters, multi-generational timeline and shift in narration. Too bad, this ranks up there with the great classic multi-layered novels of all time, evoking thoughts of the great Russian and English novelists, from Tolstoy to Dickens. Maybe it wasn't "modern" enough, or chick-lit enough, but no matter, Shadow Country is timeless.

I have always loved Peter Matthiessen' s books for their ability to immerse the reader into a rich, textural world of characters, interwoven with plot , with a poetic writing style that urges the reader forward, almost hypnotically. The writing is still here in Shadow Country, but one gets the feeling that the concept of telling the same tale, of rough & tumble Everglades entrepreneur EJ Watson & the early history of the western Florida coast through three separate novels, was a cumbersome gimmick. The author claimed it was a labor of love writing this book that took 10 years...To this reader, it seems a bloated vanity project in severe need of editing. Seriously, how many times can one read the same story? The main protagonist, obviously, has been misrepresented as a murderer, thug, & n'er do well with a bad reputation; did we need to labor through three retellings of this tale to finally reach this conclusion? First, we are told the common 'historical' version of Watson's lively biography from Wild West drover & alleged murderer of Belle Starr to cane syrup king in the swamplands of an even wilder Florida, second, we are privy to a son's somewhat wilted 'research diary' & finally, the memoirs of Watson himself. The only portion of this novel which is evocative of any true life & style is Watson's memoirs. While historically rich, the two preceding books fall rather flat with one full of indeterminate voices of Florida characters who sound suspiciously identical, & the other a dull trip following Watson's son as he researches his father's past via terse family interviews in countless humid parlors, farms, & dusty libraries. My guess is that the two first novels were simply notes fleshed out to create novellas & thrown in, sadly, to bloat the page count. I cannot figure out why Matthiessen did not condense & edit these three "books" into one, solid, rip roaring yarn. It is unfortunate, because you must suffer through 600 pages of great writing about mediocre events before hitting gold with this one. I say skip it & read Children of a Lesser God instead...That is far more indicative of Matthiessen' s storytelling genius & poetry. This book, not so much.

Shadow Country is this decades best entrant for title of "The Great American Novel". I did not read any of the previous novels of this trilogy, so I read them with a fresh perspective. When I saw an interview with Mr. Matthiessen on "Charlie Rose" I was intrigued by the subject matter of this book but was frankly more intrigued by the opportunity of a leading writer to in essence re-synthesize his magnum opus. The result is dazzling. The scope and scale of this novel are ambitious and challenging with various narrators, Faulkneresque perspectives that peel back the layers of this highly complex charcter, E.J. Watson. The artistry of the structure, language (vernacular speech to dazzling prose) and a poetic sense of time, place and atmosphere fascinate from the start. You can almost feel the humidity, odors and heat of southern Florida. Matthiessen gives voice to a place and time that were largely left out of American literature. The novels themes of race, progress vs. nature, the loss of the indigenous character provide a back drop to the examination of this complex character- part wild west gunman, victim of circumstance, man of progress, conscious and plotting killer, father, lover, husband, victimized son, pillar of the community and on and on. The wreckage and accomplishment of Watson's life are wondrous to behold. Who was the true man? In the end Watson stands in for America itself, a self made creation; full of wonders and terrors, genius, hard work and reckless, consuming abandon. This novel will remain with you for a long time.

I just saw that Peter Matthiessen died today and I felt compelled to add my two cents to one of the most compelling reads of my life. I've haven't the condensed version of the Killing Mister Watson series but the word that comes to mind regarding the original is powerful. Monumental works too as Matthiessen gets into the underbelly of the deep south in a way I've never encountered before. Watson is a character deserving of an epic. I think these are some of the great novels of the last 100 years. Enjoy the read :)

Matthiessen leads the reader through a dark journey reflecting the life and times of mysterious southwest Florida pioneer E. J. Watson. Was he a man to be admired for his courage and perseverance as he settled and farmed deep in the Ten Thousand Islands where few still tread? Or, was he an outlaw and a murderer? As other reviews have noted, this three part novel is tediously detailed. But it is worth the trip for those who love Florida and its history, particularly the areas where Watson settled and left his violent fingerprint.

A masterpiece. Shadow Country is a must read for anyone who loves, Florida, History, or a well spun tale. Many of the names can be found in the Old Fort Myers Cemetery, including old Edgar himself. You can tour his daughter, Carrie Langford's home downtown. The Smallwood store proudly stands today, and if you get lucky enough to find a knowledgable Big Cypress Guide you can even visit the Watson homesite. It's a story that will haunt you and drive you to find out more about these fabulous people and the places they walked.