Shadow Country was unknown to me until I recently read an article that mentioned this long, epic tale. During summer, I always feel like I can take on a longer book, and I ended up going much deeper into the history of this novel than I expected.
Released over a decade ago, Shadow Country was not on my radar. When I read a synopsis - an epic tale about E.J. Watson, a notorious farmer and outlaw in turn of the 20th century Florida Everglades - I thought I'd give it a shot. Interestingly, the book was originally written as 3 different novels. The first, a retelling of Watson's life from the viewpoint of friends and associates; the second, a retelling from his son (1st person) years after his death as he tries to put together what was real and what was exaggerated; and a third, a first person retelling from Watson himself. The author shaved over 500 pages off these books to offer them together as the sprawling, 900 page Shadow Country.
Another development also elevated this novel for me. While I knew the novel was entirely fiction, I had figured that main character and events were also totally fiction, but with about 100 pages left, I Googled a place in the book to learn more about it and found out that Watson was a real person! In fact, the entire book was based on real history that occurred in Florida over 100 years ago. After finishing the book, I did go down the Google black hole to learn more about how much was real and what may have been made up. While this book is in no way a biography, it does have some factual elements that improved the reading experience.
So what was good about this book? Well, the three ways of telling the story was great. While there were shared events and characters between all three retellings, each varied enough to read as differentiated stories. I also loved the character of EJ Watson. While it's commonplace now to see the anti-hero depicted on TV and movies, here was a much less recent literary example. Much like a Tony Soprano, Watson was a pretty awful dude but his charisma and odd empathy for certain people made him captivating. Finally, I loved the story itself. His trials (literal and figurative) and tribulations were thoroughly engaging and there were large pieces of this book that I found myself unable to put it down.
Alternatively, there were also large parts of the book were I struggled NOT to put it down. At almost 900 pages, more could have been edited out and streamlined. Because of the large number of characters (too many in my opinion), I also had difficulty keeping up with who everyone was (I did appreciate the handy ancestral chart that at least made it easier to keep the Watsons straight). I also think others might find the content difficult to navigate. Quite similar to the Wild West at this time, much of the book focuses on death, detailed violence, rape, racism, sexism, etc. So, not for the faint of heart.
As a whole, this book is quite an investment. It took me over a month to read, and that included many stretches of multiple hours a day. While it helps that the book is based in real life events, includes exciting characters, and is an enjoyable read, be aware of the difficulty of getting through the text. This includes both the page length and content included. However, if you can, it is a fulfilling read.
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