Bone by Bone

This book takes its title from an Emily Dickinson poem: "There is a pain - so utter - it swallows substance up - Then covers the Abyss with Trance so Memory can step Around - across - upon it As one within a swoon - goes safely - where an open eye - Would Drop him -Bone by Bone." Matthiessen takes us through the dark substance in the novel with "an open eye," and it is no hyperbole to say that by the end of it one feels that one has indeed been dropped "bone by bone" into hollow, lonely, merciless places in the landscape of the human soul where one tries not to venture too often. In short, Bone by Bone - much more so than the previous two novels in the Watson trilogy - is a deeply unsettling book. One feels one has to pull oneself back together after reading it. From the cruel horror of the "Owl Man" in Watson's youth in South Carolina until the last pages when his mortal coil is blown away on a Florida beach, we are struck by manifestations of what Watson's educated wife tells him Miss Dickinson has concluded, to wit, that "the true nature of nature was malevolent." Watson ruminates over this darkly, "Only an egotistical pontificator could regard such an engine of danger without awe, or dare to dismiss it as detestable - unless, of course, this poet was privy to some heavenly information that the Creator detested his own creation." Gradually Watson - along with the reader - is led into this world-view. Here is Watson contemplating one of the few murders to which he admits in the book: "A man is quick, eyes bright, mouth shining, and the next moment he is extinguished, twitching the last of his lost life away in his own mess. There is no being anymore, only the soiled carcass, eyes wide, mouth wide, shivering and jerking as death takes it. A life is gone like the sun flash of a minnow in the current." In conclusion, this is not a book to be enjoyed (as Killing Mr. Watson is, perhaps, because of the Watson myth which permeates so much of the book), but rather to be treasured as a courageous author's showing us a side of the world and ourselves that very few authors indeed take up pen to describe, the part of our world that is, "....some realm where right and wrong have little meaning and where the sinner plays at being human, having become some unnatural damned thing howling alone in the wilderness where even God can't find him, let alone redeem him." I'm glad to have read this book and this trilogy. But I'm equally glad to be able to step back from it now and start breathing more freely again. A masterful achievement.

This is the finest and most enjoyable novel I have read this year. Unlike many reviewers, I have not read the previous books in the series. This novel tells the story of E. J. Watson in the first person, from his boyhood in South Carolina during the reconstruction till the moment when he is gunned down by a mob in Florida in 1910. A long, complex, detailed narrative full of people, character, information, and history, it works on many levels, and is most amazing to contemplate when one has finished reading it. Mr. Watson had a brutal childhood, and was fixated early in life on becoming a man of property and restoring his family honor. He in fact becomes a murderer, exploiter, trouble maker, and terrorizer of blacks. From his own perspective, we also see a man truly in love with each of his three wives, having a generous sense of humor, trying to be decent and upstanding, and aware of his own evil. Peter Matthiessen's book is a powerful evocation of the complex trajectory of a human life, and the paradox of any attempt to reconcile an external judgement of that life with the experience of how it was to have lived it.

This book is a masterpeice by one of America's greatest living authors, and is the best of the Mr. Watson trilogy. It is haunting. I give it my highest recommendation.

My Mother's family and many of her friends lived in the South Florida frontier in the early part of the century. I've heard many stories of their adventures, and the "characters" they knew, which included the famous Mr. Watson. I've read and enjoyed the three Matthiessen books,(Killing Mr. Watson, Lost Man's River, Bone by Bone) each more than once. the writing, the insights, the research all are impressive and exciting. I wish there were more coming. Bone by Bone is clearly a culmination of a life's work. The author speaks with an authentic voice and soul in this particular novel, and these strange and unfamiliar histories come alive.

A brilliant finale to what is surely one of the finest projects ever produced by an American writer. Peter Matthiessen is a genius.