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Killing Mister Watson
Matthiessen, Peter.
Adult Fiction MATTHIE
From Publishers' Weekly:
Numerous acquaintances of the leg endary Edgar J. Watson, said to have gunned down the outlaw Belle Starr, are given voice in a fictionalized oral history set in the Florida Everglades. PW called this ``an imaginative and haunting evocation of a time and place, and the paradox of the tenderness and brutality with which real and imagined lives are filled.'' Ten tales about people trapped in futile behavior patterns comprise On the River Styx: ``In limpid, lyrical prose, these dazzling stories ob jectively explore the lack of communi cation between husbands and wives, between races and cultures.'' (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
From Library Journal:
Around the turn of the century southern Florida was an inhospitable region populated by Seminole Indians, runaway slaves, Civil War deserters, and other misfits and desperados. ``Suspect everyone and ask no questions'' was the rule, and those foolish enough to ask questions of Edgar J. Watson, a hard-drinking sugar-cane planter rumored to be The Man Who Shot Belle Starr, were quickly silenced. But as the railroad brought civilization ever closer, Watson's brand of frontier justice seemed increasingly out of place, even to his admirers. Thus, the community's first civic act was to be a ritual murder. Matthiessen's fact-based historical novel assembles the evidence: newspaper clippings, diary extracts, the testimony of neighbors and kin. In constant deep focus is the spectacle of the wanton destruction of the ecosystem--a process well underway by 1910. An important and provocative book from the author of Far Tortuga ( LJ 4/15/75). Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 2/15/90.-- Edward B. St. John, Loyola Law Sch. Lib., Los Angeles (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Matthiessen, Peter.
Adult Fiction MATTHIE
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From Publishers' Weekly:
Numerous acquaintances of the leg endary Edgar J. Watson, said to have gunned down the outlaw Belle Starr, are given voice in a fictionalized oral history set in the Florida Everglades. PW called this ``an imaginative and haunting evocation of a time and place, and the paradox of the tenderness and brutality with which real and imagined lives are filled.'' Ten tales about people trapped in futile behavior patterns comprise On the River Styx: ``In limpid, lyrical prose, these dazzling stories ob jectively explore the lack of communi cation between husbands and wives, between races and cultures.'' (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
From Library Journal:
Around the turn of the century southern Florida was an inhospitable region populated by Seminole Indians, runaway slaves, Civil War deserters, and other misfits and desperados. ``Suspect everyone and ask no questions'' was the rule, and those foolish enough to ask questions of Edgar J. Watson, a hard-drinking sugar-cane planter rumored to be The Man Who Shot Belle Starr, were quickly silenced. But as the railroad brought civilization ever closer, Watson's brand of frontier justice seemed increasingly out of place, even to his admirers. Thus, the community's first civic act was to be a ritual murder. Matthiessen's fact-based historical novel assembles the evidence: newspaper clippings, diary extracts, the testimony of neighbors and kin. In constant deep focus is the spectacle of the wanton destruction of the ecosystem--a process well underway by 1910. An important and provocative book from the author of Far Tortuga ( LJ 4/15/75). Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 2/15/90.-- Edward B. St. John, Loyola Law Sch. Lib., Los Angeles (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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