Peter Mattiessen's Shadow Country

Peter Mattiessen’s trilogy about the notorious Edgar Watson has been condensed into a single volume—good news for anyone who would rather not wrestle with three separate good sized books and experience the amazing story and colorful perspectives between two covers instead of six. Watson was a cane farmer in the Florida Everglades wilderness at the turn of 20^th century. He’s blamed for several murders ranging from despicable outlaws to disgruntled employees to one’s pregnant wife. Eventually the townsfolk grew so scared of him they emptied their guns into him one stormy night in the tiny island town of Chokoloskee.

The first book is written from a patchwork of townsfolk perspectives, most of whom were involved in his death. The second is from that of Watson’s son, Luscious, a historian trying to know his father and his father’s killer. The final being of course from the main man himself, and Mattiessen’s Watson persona is the most compelling of the three excellent stories.

On an Everglades canoe trip in January of this year I spent a night at the site of the old Watson plantation. Mostly covered in mangrove, it’s hard to imagine large fields of sugar cane, a large house and other support buildings ever existing there. Remaining is a rusting cauldron presumably used for boiling cane syrup, a cistern filled with green rainwater and pieces of implement beyond recognition decaying in the bush.

The displayed photo was made on the beach of Mormon Key, an island on the Gulf of Mexico two miles downstream from the plantation site near the mouth of the Chatham River.