Lost Man's River

Rating:
Summary: Not nearly as good as the first book, but...
Review: I loved "Killing Mr. Watson," the first book, and thought the genealogy in it was great, though I finally did find myself making a (complex) chart of who was related to who. But even with this knowledge already in hand, "Lost Man's River" seemed to bog down. The modern parts, especially, were very forced. Sally, among others, was just not a believable character, and the sex scene made her even less believable. Moreover, when is all this set? The author hints that it was 50 years after Mr. Watson's death, which would necessarily make it 1960, and so makes Lucius age 70 and Rob--admitttedly--an octogenarian. But the tone and language, plus the attitudes towards drugs, race, sex, etc. are much closer to 1975 (at least) than 1960. Several characters are depicted as veterans of a war in Asia that "no one ever gave a damn about." Sounds more like Vietnam to me than Guadalcanal or Okinawa. Ironically (and it's a big irony) the most interesting thing about the book is the critical name change for the family that was the "Richard Hamilton" clan in the first book. In this book, the author calls them the Hardens, but it's clearly the same family--even their initials are the same. The names of all the other families are the same in both books. Why the change for this one? It can only be because this is the family that all the others believe to have some African-American ancestry. This was a big issue in the South in 1910, and it is obviously nearly as big an issue now. All the other surnames are of actual pioneer families of the Everglades: Daniels, Jenkins, Brown, Storter, Smallwood, etc. The clear inference is that today's Hamilton descendants objected to the author using their real names and thus labelling them as "passing for white" (whatever that means). It would be interesting to have Mr. Matthiessen confirm this, because it brings one of the book's significant themes into real-time focus.

Rating:
Summary: Bogged Down in an Impenetrable Swamp
Review: I sat down to read this book with a sense of eager anticipation, having greatly enjoyed Peter Matthiessen's first book in the Watson trilogy, "Killing Mr Watson". I put it down, nearly a month later, with a sense of profound disappointment. "Lost Man's River" is not a book in the same class as its predecessor.

"Killing Mr Watson" told the story of Edgar Watson's life in Southern Florida and his eventual death at the hands of a posse of his neighbours. "Lost Man's River" tells the story of Watson's son Lucius, a historian with both an academic and an emotional interest in finding out the truth about his father's life. (Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that, while Lucius's academic interest lies in finding out the truth about his father's life, his emotional interest lies in confirming his own preconceived ideas about his father's life). By the time of the events narrated in the book (around 1960) Lucius is an elderly man. The book follows his journeys around Florida and his meetings with the surviving few people who remember Edgar Watson, including his reunion with his long-lost brother Rob.

The sentimental journeyings of a septuagenarian historian do not make for an enthralling plot; indeed, the book has a loose, episodic structure and very little in the way of coherent plot at all. In "Killing Mister Watson" the characters were vividly drawn, especially the dominating figure of Watson himself. In "Lost Man's River" there is much less in the way of characterisation. Although Watson is an ever-present thought in Lucius's mind, he obviously cannot be introduced as a character in his own right as he has been dead for fifty years. Lucius is merely a bore, and the other characters are stiff and lifeless. The old people's reminiscences of the past are tedious and confusing, and tend to get bogged down in an excess of genealogical detail. In an attempt to add to the interest of the plot, Matthiessen provides a brief love-interest for Lucius in the form of a much younger woman, but this episode struck me as very unconvincing.

Not everything about the book is bad. There are some vivid descriptions of the natural beauty of the Everglades. There is also some sharp commentary about the way in which that natural beauty has been despoiled by the modern world, and about Southern racism. Unlike most of what has preceded it, the ending is genuinely gripping, as old feuds end in violence and Lucius makes an unwelcome discovery which forces him to reassess his view of the past. Unfortunately, to get to the ending one has to wade through some very tedious passages; like some of the characters, I often felt that I was bogged down in an impenetrable swamp.

Rating:
Summary: The "action" is genealogical; the main character, dead.
Review: If you have ever driven yourself to near distraction trying to trace a family genealogy, with duplicate names, multiple marriages, and family migrations, you might have prepared adequately for Lost Man's River, which is, essentially, a detailed family genealogy. And though you may be fascinated by some of the characters, be prepared to do a great deal of page-flipping to try to keep all the characters all straight.

There is not much direct action. Except for the ending, the most exciting events take place in the past and surround the death of E. J. Watson when the now fifty-year-old narrator, his son Lucius, was a child. The action that takes place in the present occurs primarily through interviews forty years after E.J. Watson's death as Lucius tries to separate truth from myth.

The book is not fatally dull because of the historical, sociological, cultural, and geographical insights the author also provides. Illustrating the conflicting cultures and motivations of very poor whites, blacks, Indians,and "mixed breeds" as they hunt, fish, drink, and interact, often disastrously, in the Florida Everglades, Lost Man's River also traces the life, death, and possible salvation of a wild and much threatened natural environment.

With its large cast of characters, complex familial relationships, and carefully researched depictions of the forty year time span of the "action," this is a book of enormous reach. It is not surprising that it took the author twenty years to bring it to fruition.

Rating:
Summary: The "action" is genealogical; the main character, dead.
Review: If you have ever driven yourself to near distraction trying to trace a family genealogy, with duplicate names, multiple marriages, and family migrations, you might have prepared adequately for Lost Man's River, which is, essentially, a detailed family genealogy. And though you may be fascinated by some of the characters, be prepared to do a great deal of page-flipping to try to keep all the characters all straight.

There is not much direct action. Except for the ending, the most exciting events take place in the past and surround the death of E. J. Watson when the now fifty-year-old narrator, his son Lucius, was a child. The action that takes place in the present occurs primarily through interviews forty years after E.J. Watson's death as Lucius tries to separate truth from myth.

The book is not fatally dull because of the historical, sociological, cultural, and geographical insights the author also provides. Illustrating the conflicting cultures and motivations of very poor whites, blacks, Indians,and "mixed breeds" as they hunt, fish, drink, and interact, often disastrously, in the Florida Everglades, Lost Man's River also traces the life, death, and possible salvation of a wild and much threatened natural environment.

With its large cast of characters, complex familial relationships, and carefully researched depictions of the forty year time span of the "action," this is a book of enormous reach. It is not surprising that it took the author twenty years to bring it to fruition.

Rating:
Summary: Explaining the mystery
Review: In agreement with many of the other reviewers of this novel I agree the amount of characters and their lineages can be trying. However, when I manged to get even a slight idea of who was who things became much easier. I thought the novel filled in the gaps and questions left my "Killing Mr. Watson" with great clarity. Because of this I believe that the novel could not be fully appreciated without having previously read the first book of the trilogy. "Lost Man's River" made me formulate my own conclusions as to what actually happened and not until the very end did I find out what I had right and what I had wrong

Rating:
Summary: The Mangrove Novel
Review: Living in southwest Florida in the area of much of the locale of this story I was constantly reminded of the tangle of the mangrove forests which are typical of the coastal waters of this part of the world and the Ten Thousand Islands in particular. Virtually impenetrable. So was the confusing mass of cracker family detail piled on the reader. One has to force one's way through it and the result is a pretty thin story at the end. However the author's tidbits of history about the area and the spoilation of the Everglades is of interest for those having some knowledge of and curiosity about the subjects. I also felt that this New York born writer carries a lot of his Yankee baggage with him which causes him to unload the usual northern liberal unsympathetic, vulgar, racist stereotyping of southern life of the past on the readers. Way overdone.

Rating:
Summary: Killing Mr. Reader
Review: Peter Mattiessen has written a snoozer of a book as a follow up to "Killing Mr. Watson." I purchased this book with enthusiasm and began reading it with keen anticipation and soon found myself bogged down in tedium as muggy and uncomfortable as any mosquito-infected hammock in the wilds of South Florida.

The author drags the reader, along with vaguely embodied Lucius, son of Mr. Watson, from one to another of complicated and excruciatingly boring genealogy lessons, painfully and pointlessly enumerating the complex web of family members, living and dead, of Mr. Watson, as well as the family members of Mr. Watson's alleged victims, members of families he married into, and the families of women upon whom he sired bastard children.

It reminds me of being in the company of a bunch of old men and women from my own rural background, who are sitting around tracing through and arguing over family history. "No, no, that wasn't a Jones he married, it was a Smith, that little Smith girl, Jessie, you know..." Ho-hum. It is bad enough to encounter this sort of boorishness from time to time in real life -- but to seek it out in fiction is a form of masochism which I hope most readers will not find appealling. Sorry, Peter, but you lost this reader this time. I'll never make it to the third novel in the string, "Bone by Bone." It was bad enough going through the life of the ultimately uninteresting Mr. Watson, body by body. "Killing Mr. Watson," was a good read. Digging up and scattering his bones was a big mistake.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful stories within the story
Review: The Washington Post, and others, have proclaimed that Part II of the Watson trilogy isn't up to its brethren - but I found it fascinating, nonetheless. Of special interest were the character vignettes, what I would call the stories within the story - masterfully done, sometimes funny, sometimes revolting. Peter M. has learned a lot about the human condition, and he doesn't hold back. In addition, while reading this book one can almost smell the mangrove swamps of Florida, and at times feel their destruction in the name of "progress".

Rating:
Summary: Waste of Time
Review: This was the first of Mr. Matthiessen's works that I've read, and based on "Lost Man's River" it will be the last. A tale that might have been told in 100 pages -- if at all -- is dragged out far too long. The timelines are confusing, and verifiably inconsistent; the characters are unappealing to the last and completely predictable; and the story itself goes nowhere. You're told all you need to know on page 1 and the rest is overblown description and repetition. Obviously, I regret taking the time to read this book and can only recommend that other readers try something -- anything -- else.

Rating:
Summary: Waste of Time
Review: This was the first of Mr. Matthiessen's works that I've read, and based on "Lost Man's River" it will be the last. A tale that might have been told in 100 pages -- if at all -- is dragged out far too long. The timelines are confusing, and verifiably inconsistent; the characters are unappealing to the last and completely predictable; and the story itself goes nowhere. You're told all you need to know on page 1 and the rest is overblown description and repetition. Obviously, I regret taking the time to read this book and can only recommend that other readers try something -- anything -- else.