Shadow Country

A New Rendering of the Watson Legend

By: Peter Matthiessen

Narrated by: Anthony Heald

Length: 40 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

Critic reviews

"[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)

poor audio

I read it years ago. So much better in the text. Not a great Matthiessen. Suggest passing on this one.

waste of time

hard to understand and boring. Dont bother ,waste of a good credit. Could not even finish it.

Too tedious to listen to

Using my monthly credit for this book was a mistake. Having enjoyed "The Snow Leopard" and "At Play in the Fields of the Lord," I expected "Shadow Country" to be wonderful, especially since it won the National Book Award. But now I would like to know what the judges for the National Book Award were smoking when they read this. I'm even wondering if they read it or just got caught up in Peter Matthiessen's reputation and wanted to honor him in his old age. I am a fairly literary reader but except for the author's fascination with Mr. Watson I don't even see the point of this book. It's a labored and repetitious retelling over 40 hours of what would have been better told in a short story. Heminway might have told the whole Watson legend in five pages. Faulkner might have taken 200 pages. But more than 1,000 pages is beyond taste. Making the Audible version even worse, this narrator's attempt to do various Southern accents is more confusing than helpful. Many narrators are able to create distinctive voices for each character. But this book is mostly told in a high pitched stage whisper that grates on the nerves very quickly. This only makes following a long, long drawn out story told by multiple narrators hard to follow. I checked over at the Amazon Web page for this book and it appears many readers of the print and Kindle editions had the same reaction. I realize other readers appear to have loved this book, but I for one cannot see it. I would suggest reading a few pages of the print edition in either the libary or a bookstore to see if you really want to spend 40 hours with this tome.

Hit the stop button

Somewhere in here is a good story. This book is in desperate need of an editor with the guts to cut out 2/3 of the book. Endlessly we hear the same story, told in a corn pone accent, over and over, from different points of view. Rashomon it's not. It's a shame, because it was just interesting enough to keep me going until about halfway through, when I had to say "NO MAS!"

Zzzzzz!

I am a devoted Audible listener, but I have to say, I've struggled with Shadow Country. Usually I think of any excuse to take a walk or a drive in my car so that I can listen to my latest book. But I've been working on this one for more than a month - and I'm still finding myself getting lost in the multitude of characters and relationships, and not sure that I care about any of them! I think I am about to give it up after finishing only about 16 hours of the book. Shadow Country has been more of a cure for my insomnia than an entertaining listen. Perhaps, as one reviewer said, it might be more enjoyable if you had read the book first.

Say What?

I really wanted to enjoy this book. The review and synopsis were compelling. What I got was a different story. Very difficult to understand with rambling prose I found myself drifting off to other more enjoyable entertainment - which is saying lots given I am while driving to work. Better luck to you.

Could not get into it

What would have made Shadow Country better?

The style of the story moving from character to character did not lend itself well to the audible format

Boring

Honestly thought this would be better but found the story uninteresting and monotonous. Do not recommend.

Boooooorrrrring!

Sorry Audible, couldn't make it through this one. Not only did it drag on, but the audio quailty wasn't great, so I kept having to turn the volume up and down depending on who was speaking making it difficult to listen to. I would recommend skipping it.

Old Geezer Marathon

Imagine an old geezer on a front porch telling you allll the stories of the locals, allll of the history, with a deft turn of phrase and some dry wit. For the first hour or so you find it fascinating, entertaining, you're relishing the prospect of hearing all about it.

But it just keeps going, and going, in an endless burble, without a single pause for breath. And the characters keep getting harder and harder to keep track of, and the themes get progressively repetitive and depressing.

And then you're thinking he'll, I've got another 37 hours of this? How is that possible when part of my mind has already shut down. Then all you can think of is how to politely get away because you ceased to be interested a long time ago and you just want it to stop.

Got the picture in your mind? Well that is this book.