About this title: This landmark one-volume reworking of Matthiessen's Watson trilogy--"Killing Mister Watson," "Lost Man's River," and "Bone by Bone"--reveals one of America's finest writes at the peak of his career.
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Description: Good. 2008-Paperback----Used-Good-Hall Street Books proudly ships from Brooklyn, NY. All orders are processed and shipped within 24 hours, M-F. 100% money back No-Worry guarantee with expedited delivery and delivery confirmation available. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Modern Library
Date Published: 2008-12-02
ISBN-13:9780812980622ISBN:081298062X
Description: Very Good. This paperback book is very clean with clean edges, no writing on the inside pages. Has some small lite stains on the bottom edge. The book is tight and is in very good condition. We have a 100% refund 5 day NO HASSLE return policy if you are not satisfied. -We ship daily with USPS Delivery Confirmation. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Modern Library
Date Published: 2008-11-26
ISBN-13:9780812980622ISBN:081298062X
Description: NEW. Softcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780812980622. read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Acceptable. Former Library book. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Modern Library
Date Published: 2008-04-08
ISBN-13:9780679640196ISBN:0679640193
Description: NEW. Hardcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780679640196. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Modern Library
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780679640196ISBN:0679640193
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Binding: Spoken Word MP3-CD
Publisher: Blackstone Audio Inc
Date Published: 2009-02-01
ISBN-13:9781433278976ISBN:1433278979
Description: NEW. Spoken Word MP3-CD. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9781433278976. read more
Binding: CD-ROM
Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks, Inc
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9781433278976ISBN:1433278979
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Random House, NY
Date Published: 1990
Description: Dust Jacket Design By Amy Weintraub; Book Design By Simon N. Sullivan. Fine in Fine Dust Jacket in Fine jacket. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. Signed by Author First Random House hardcover printings of the Watson 'Shadow Country' trilogy: Killing Mister Watson [1990]; Lost Man's River [1997]; Bone By Bone [1999]. viii, 376pp; xiv, 516pp; xiv, 416pp. Dust jacket prices 21.95; 26.95; 26.95. Signed by Matthiessen to half-title pages of each volume. Books and dust jackets appear in fine, tight, unread ... read more
"I've been extraordinarily lucky this summer with my reading choices. I loved this book. Both the plot and the writing are breathtaking. Peter Matthiessen took three earlier works and combined them into one then ended up winning the National book award for this book. This has been a project 30 years in the making and it shows. These books belong as one and his incessant tinkering has distilled the writing down to the bone in true Zen fashion. The everglades are one of the main characters in this re-telling of the bloody Watson myth. The story was full of mystery and suspense while I learned all about life in the post-civil war U.S. The author taught me about Florida history, showed me the relationship between the environment and progess-all without beating me over the head with a certain view. I appreciated this immensely. I soared through Books 1 and 2. For me, the 3rd book was a bit slow-unlike Book 1 and 2. Reading this book inspired me to read other work by Peter Matthiessen and I can see his progess as a writer since winning his other National book award for the Snow Lion (nonfiction). I highly recommend Shadow country."
"National Book Award Winner 2008 A novel that begins where it ends, with the death of Edgar Artemas "Jack" Watson. Originally published as three separate novels, Matthiessen's "new rendering" is often referred to as a distillation of the three novels, and it consists of three parts: 1) a structurally Faulknerian opening containing a prologue detailing the moment of Watson's death, then spiraling back into the story through the shifting narrators (chapter titles identify narrator) whose stories sometimes overlap, contradict, or supplement other pieces, 2) a narration centered on Lucius, who was in many ways the son closest to Watson , and his desire to put his father's death to rest in his own mind, and finally 3) Watson's own version of the story ending with the moment of his death. The title aptly refers to "Jack" whom Watson calls his "shadow brother" when he is a young man-his temper, his other self who emerges in crisis moments and does what is necessary to protect Edgar's interests. At the end of his life, at 55, Watson can finally admit that Jack and Edgar were one in the same all along. By that time, Watson has directly killed or directly caused the death of nearly twenty of his employees, neighbors, relatives or "friends." The novel also provides in interesting glimpse into the "frontier" lives of early South Floridians."
This long and enormously interesting book is a reworking of the three separate volumes-a National Book Award Winner-published from 1990 to 1999 into a single book. I haven't read the original trilogy but if Matthiessen's goal in the revision was to clarify and coalesce the three parts, I believe he's succeeded admirably.
I don't know that I've ever gotten the hang of reading historical fiction. I suppose it's generally speaking a good policy not to spend too much time or energy trying to sort out or differentiate fact from the author's fancy but as an enthusiastic nonfiction reader I find it hard to resist the temptation. I think it helped that I'd never heard of Edgar Watson or his "legend"; I read Shadow Country more as pure fiction which was liberating. But it was also helpful-and fun-to have at least a passing acquaintance with modern southwest Florida gulf coast, at least place names and geography.
The story of the planter Edgar A. Watson takes place in the post-Civil War south into the turn of the 20th century. There is no mystery about the outcome since the denouement occurs in the opening pages of the book. But very quickly the true story, the parallel threads of the personal history of the central character as well as the growing pains of the region and the country leading up to the finale, is made clear. It's about one of the last frontiers in America told from many points of view and centering on a recurring theme of the movement of time and events as a river flows to the sea. In this telling the river is seen but so are the multiple strands and tributaries leading inexorably to the dramatic and tragic outcome.
Reviewers have pointed to Matthiessen's "stylistic range" and this was to me one of the most striking accomplishments of the book. Book I (based on Killing Mister Watson) is told as a continuing series of first-person observations and recollections of characters directly and indirectly involved in Watson's life and death. Here the voices-in dialogue and recitation-are unique, individuated and convincing. In the second book (based on Lost Man's River) the voice is now a third-person narration from the point of view of Lucius Watson, Edgar Watson's middle, adult son (he had at least ten children) as he sets about the arduous and dangerous task of riddling out the reasons and the perpetrators of his father's death. Was it a murder, an execution, a lynching, or suicide? Lucius is the gentle and bookish son most loving and loved by his father. He is also a lover of nature and here begin descriptions of the natural world that are far ranging and at times truly poetic. These images stand in contrast to the depictions of the horrors wrought on nature by encroaching development and the often breathtaking racist brutality of the Jim Crow Era. Finally in Book III (from Bone by Bone) we are brought full circle to Edgar Watson's story in his own words and through his own thoughts and opinions.
Edgar supplies the final pieces of the puzzle and yet he remains enigmatic to his last breath. The reader must draw his or her own conclusions as to his motivations. The character is so complex: simultaneously attractive and repellent, insightful and blind, nurturing and lethal, not to mention ingenious in his survival while hurtling, maddeningly toward self-destruction. If you're standard for fiction is a story that stays with you long after the book is closed, then Shadow Country should be on your reading list."
"He continues to make stories that breathe on you. This is a lotta book, but, for me, one that I was glad was long; a little heavy to hold up with my skinny arms while reading in bed. It was exactly how you would hear a story that you were wondering about in real life told in different ways by different people. Each having their own spin on the same happenings and different memories of minute details. I have worked construction with and then visited with swampies in Florida- though not the everglades swampies- gulf coast swampies and , yep, his descriptions of people and place and people in the place seemed accurate. That is, I mean, while reading this book I saw some of the older folks I met represented."
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