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Killing Mister Watson By Peter Matthiessen ( Vintage )
Release Date: 1991-07-30
Average Customer Rating:
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Product Description
Drawn from fragments of historical fact, Matthiessen's masterpiece brilliantly depicts the fortunes and misfortunes of Edgar J. Watson, a real-life entrepreneur and outlaw who appeared in the lawless Florida Everglades around the turn of the century.
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 Slow Going
I'm sure the vernacular is appropriate for the characters and setting of this book, but to me it felt like slogging through a Florida swamp. The premise/storyline just wasn't compelling enough to make me want to work that hard, and it was difficult to keep the characters straight. However, I had to admire the fact that the author took an actual historic event and built a fictional novel around it. That is hard, hard work!
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 Pros and Cons of Killing Mr. Watson ( everett014 )
Pros: delightful narrative written in authentic dialect; interesting characters and plot promote further reading/research about Florida history.
Cons: characters' perspectives on events leading up to Mr. Watson's death become tedious and repetitious, especially during the last half of the novel. This book could have been condensed without losing any content.
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 Review of "Killing Mister Watson"
Killing Mr. Watson is a historical fiction based on the 1910 vigilante murder of Edgar Watson in the Everglades of southwest Florida. Mr. Watson is a shadowy character who appears in the south Florida town of Chokoloskee at the turn of the century, when south Florida was one the last unsettled frontiers. Mr. Watson is a hardworking plantation owner who considered by the local residents to be both generous and dangerous because of his proficiency with firearms and a hair-trigger temper. The combination of Mr. Watson's mysterious past, his proclivity for violence, and the strange disappearance or murder of laborers on his plantation lead his neighbors to gun him down following a major hurricane. The story of Mr. Watson is retold from the first person accounts of his family and neighbors, with newspaper articles from the period interspaced between chapters to act as a narrative.
Peter Matthiessen is an award winning author who meticulously recreates the drama surrounding Mr. Watson's life using a cast of diverse characters that are true to pioneer life in Florida.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, reading most of it over a two day period. As someone who considers Florida his home state, I also appreciated Mr. Matthiessen's attention to historical detail when recreating South Florida at the turn of the century. I would recommend this book to anyone and it certainly fits into the category of modern classic.
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Fascinating, horrifying vision of Florida ( bookbuyny )
A wonderfully detailed picture of the old Florida--a violent, swampy land that attracts criminals and real-estate shysters.... sound familiar? Yes, it's the old Florida and a prediction of new Florida too, but with a terrifying gothic chaos, and a sadness about the environmental destruction to come.
Ultimately, the book left me a little bit cold. I suppose that's sort of the point, but it tickled my brain more than my heart. Still highly recommended.
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Story told in heavy Southern dialect ( seneca91 )
'T ahll balls down t' this: if readin' fo' hunnert pages of thick cracker drawl don't rasp yo' nerves worser 'n a skeeter whine, y'all will love this here book.
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