Shadow Country

A New Rendering of the Watson Legend

De: Peter Matthiessen

Narrado por: Anthony Heald

National Book Award, Fiction, 2008

Inspired by a near-mythic event on the wild Florida frontier at the turn of the 20th century, Shadow Country re-imagines the legend of the inspired Everglades sugar planter and notorious outlaw E. J. Watson, who drives himself relentlessly toward his own violent end at the hands of neighbors who mostly admired him, in a killing that obsessed his favorite son.

Shadow Country transverses strange landscapes inhabited by Americans of every provenance and color, including the black and Indian inheritors of archaic racism that "still casts its shadow over the nation."

©2008 Peter Matthiessen (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Reseñas de la Crítica

"[G]ripping, shocking, and brilliantly told....as powerful a reading experience as nearly any in our literature." ( New York Review of Books)
"Magnificent and capacious....the book took my sleeve and like the ancient mariner would not let go....a breathtaking saga." ( Los Angeles Times)
"[Watson] comes across as nothing short of iconic....it's difficult to find another figure in American literature so thoroughly and convincingly portrayed." ( Publishers Weekly)

Why so much?

I would have enjoyed this tome much more if the last section in which EJ Watson talks about himself came first. For me this would have made views about him in the first two sections more readily understandable and would have helped me keep track of the myriad of realtives, friends, and enemies. Without a book in front of you, be prepared to write down names.

I guess the whole thing was worth it. The narrator was exellent and the saving of the Everglades is worth understanding as is a last frontier history burried under the Wild West. A lot of Nigger-talk for those sensitive to it, but the story could not be told without it.

A Novel Meant to Be Listened To

If you could sum up Shadow Country in three words, what would they be?

Compelling country storytelling.

What other book might you compare Shadow Country to and why?

Absolam, Absolam, by William Faulkner, as a tale of the deep south after the civil war.

Have you listened to any of Anthony Heald’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No, but I think I should.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

In three volumes, read in five parts, there are too many.

Any additional comments?

This if the first audio book I believe I would NOT prefer reading over listening. Heald is extraordinary in his ability to bring to life deep southern speech patterns, male and female, and the author's amazing choices of words and story-telling ability. Every bit makes me feel as though I'm sitting on a rural home's porch, listening to a colorful story teller.

A Great Yarn

I whole-heartedly agree with the positive reviews of this book. It is a wonderful story of strong characters during a wild time in south Florida history. One of the reviews said that part three could stand on its own as a novel. That is true, but it is so much richer if you have the background from parts one and two. The language is pretty rough, but is entirely in character.

One note about the narration, though: if you primarily listen in the car, be prepared to adjust the volume frequently. The narrator tends to let his voice drop to a whisper, then comes back full-force in the next phrase, so you end up increasing the volume to hear the soft parts, then turning it down again to protect your hearing. The recording engineer should have used more audio compression to keep the dynamic range to a comfortable level.

couldn't wait for it to end

this is basically a compilation of 3 books in one edition. the first is told interview-style from the perspective of numerous residents of the ten thousand islands detailing the events leading up to the death of Edgar Watson, the second picks up where the first left off and is told from the perspective of Edgar Watson's son, and the third is a first-person account by Edgar Watson filling us in on what really happened. first, while the story is fundamentally good, hearing parts of it three times over really dragged. second, the many characters interviewed in the first section are all very similar in dialect, tone, etc, and it's impossible in an audio book to keep track of everyone and figure out why they're important. the narrator is good and with his voice and accent paints a clear picture of west Florida, but there seems to be a problem with the volume in which the book was recorded, and I had to turn the volume on my player up to the maximum to hear. the prose is nice and the book is well-written. all in all I might recommend this as a regular book but not as an audio book.

Engrossing, Rich and Powerful

Shadow Country is a superb book. From what I understand, it is a compilation of a trilogy surrounding the life and death of Edgar J Watson, a real-life legendary character of the American south around the late 1800's to his death in 1910. As in a trilogy, this book is comprised of three distinct parts, beginning at the end with Watson's death at the hands of a vigilante mob. The rest of the book is back story; with the first part describing Watson as told by the various people who knew him (many of these people participated in his murder/execution). The second part is told after the fact by Watson's beloved younger son, Lucius, who devotes his life in vain to uncovering the real truth about the life and death of his father. Was he the loving father Lucius knew or the reputed murderous monster?

Parts one and two, painting a vivid picture of the man and history of the region, raise as many questions as it provides answers until finally, part three, where autobiographically told by Edgar Watson himself everything is revealed. Part three, could easily stand alone as a complete novel.

This book is wonderfully written and masterfully read. It has everything; rich descriptions of the landscapes, people, and history, and plausible dialog complete with the dialects of the antebellum and postwar south. It pulls no punches when it comes to slavery and racism, so if you are not willing to hear the "N" word contextually used, be duly warned.

Peter Matthiessen brings the places and time to life. His description of the landscape after a hurricane is perfect. Perhaps living in South Florida made the story more real for me. For example, I have been to Arcadia many times. To this day it is not hard to imagine it as the old-west saloon-filled cattle town of a century past. Certainly there is a lot of history of the Everglades and man's attempts to rape this last frontier.