Finish It!

Late last night I finally finished Matthiessen's Shadow Country. And, quite frankly, I hated every one of its 892 pages. Why, you might ask, did I continue reading it if I disliked it so much? Because it is a really good book.

If this sounds like a contradiction, that's because it reflects the contradictory nature of the book itself. Indeed the title alludes to the book's dualistic theme; the main character, E. J. Watson, maintains that he has a shadow personality known as Jack. When E. J. does something wrong -- and this is frequent -- it gets blamed on Jack. As a consequence the book is filled with violence, both psychological and physical, which may explain my displeasure with it.

But this book didn't just win a bunch of awards because of its graphic depictions of murder and mayhem. The story pulls the reader into the interior hell of the characters while simultaneously describing the exterior hell of southern Florida at the turn of the 20th century. Environmental degradation goes hand in hand with the utter collapse of E. J.'s life. Utter disregard for human life is shadowed by an absolute lack of appreciation for the natural world. Indigenous people, former slaves, white women, and mixed race children are all commodified -- trapped in a system of crass gilded age capitalism by the redneck men who ruled this part of the world.

But wait! Did she just call someone a redneck? In words reminiscent of some of the characters in Shadow Country, damn straight I just called someone a redneck! Because if the characters talk about themselves in those terms, then so can this reviewer, as evidenced when E. J.'s son Lucius sets out to interview most of the men who hated E. J. the most, including Bill House who claims: "All is forgiven, Boy, cause you ain't nothin but a redneck idjit that never knowed no better. "

This, then, is the nut that has to be cracked: if a man cannot respect himself and the people around him, how can he possibly respect the land upon which he lives? When pondering this question, Matthiessen requires the reader to also consider how Americans of the 21st century are continuing to degrade the world and then blame it on the shadow people of contemporary American culture. In this case, these shadow people of our time might be considered the "birthers" or the "tea partiers" or the "crazies" against health care reform at town hall meetings. Is it possible to blame these modern "Jacks" for the crimes committed by our present-day "E. J.s"?: the greedy banks, the inhumane insurance companies, or the corrupt politicians who commodify Native Americans, African Americans, women, and children today in the system of cynical 21st century neo-gilded age capitalism. Who is more to blame for the unraveling of the great American democracy experiment: wingnut individuals who call Israeli-Americans Nazis OR insurance companies who cancel insurance policies on individuals because those individuals have pre-existing medical conditions?

Matthiessen captures this contradiction -- the individual against the system -- in poignant ways when Bill House's sister says "Knowing what he was up against with our House family, he did not scowl to scare or threaten, he did something worse: he disarmed me with a wink, a reckless confidential wink that made my righteous indignation feel downright foolish, made everything he'd told the crowd a joke, made all our hopes and struggles in this world simply ridiculous for the fundamental reason that our precious human life, for all the joys, was blood-soaked, cruel, and empty, with only sorrow, fear, disease at its dark end, fading to nothingness. Staring back at him, I thought, Was this a society of human beings or some purgatory where folks was condemned to live their lives with a laughing killer loose amongst them like a wolf?"

Yes, we have wolves in our midst, as attested to by the people who call President Obama a Nazi or the winking Sarah Palin of last election cycle but, to follow the logic presented in Matthiessen's novel, those individuals are small and inconsequential. The larger wolf, the leader of the pack, might be the pressure of the collective -- society itself -- which allows the individuals to roam freely and launch their nonsensical tirades against other individuals. Or, more aptly, the collective Wolf which allows nearly 50 million people in the greatest country on earth to go without health care due to the tragic crime of . . . being poor.

And so, to cite E. J.'s last words in the novel, "finish it" Mr. President, by bringing the shadow country places of this nation toward a reconciliation with itself.