Far Tortuga

Known for its unique typography and poetic prose,[1][2][3] the novel follows the story of a group of Caribbean turtle fishermen as they sail the waters of the Cayman Islands aboard the schooner Lillias Eden.Led by Captain Raib Avers, a veteran seaman, the journey is largely filled with arguments between crew members about the decline of traditional fishing ways, the weather and differences between the new and old generations."[2] Marianne Wiggins, in the Los Angeles Times, favorably compared the book to Moby-Dick, praising Far Tortuga as "a novel so singular, so riffy in its many strains of individual human blues, so beautiful and original that it stood alone as something unlike anything I'd ever read."[19] Robert Stone of The New York Times called the book "important, [...] its pleasures are many and good for the soul", with "the author's joy in [the dialect] so infectious [...] that its music comes to permeate the reader's consciousness as thoroughly as the wonderful descriptions.[20] Writing for The Nation, Charles R. Larson found the typography "fascinating", but noted that it eventually "made it difficult to become involved" in the story, and felt that it was worse than Matthiessen's previous novel, At Play in the Fields of the Lord.
Random HouseHardcoverPaperbackDewey DecimalPeter MatthiessenBantamtypographyCayman IslandsCaribbeanThe New YorkerWilliam ShawnGrand Cayman IslandsimilesmetaphorBantam BooksThe Paris Reviewdiscussionsea literaturepastoralwhite spacelogbookCaymanianenvironmental exploitationcommercial fisheriesde back timesprofligateThe New York Review of BooksJoseph ConradRobert Louis StevensonKirkus ReviewsMarianne WigginsLos Angeles TimesMoby-DickAmerican LiteratureRobert StoneThe New York TimesAnatole BroyardThe NationCharles R. LarsonAt Play in the Fields of the LordThe Village VoiceEBSCOhostThe GuardianThe New York Times MagazineMatthiessen, PeterPublishers WeeklyProQuestInterdisciplinary Studies in Literature and EnvironmentLarson, Charles R.Salem PressStone, RobertWiggins, MarianneThe Los Angeles TimesBroyard, Anatole