Peter Matthiessen: Five essential reads and why they matter

Peter Matthiessen, who died Saturday at age 86, was the author of more than 30 books, beginning with his 1954 novel “Race Rock.”

Here are five of his most resonant:

“At Play in the Fields of the Lord” (1965). Matthiessen’s fourth novel is about the clash between good and evil, played out in the Amazon rain forest and featuring two Americans who have come to the remote village of the Niaruna Indians — one to convert them and the other to kill them. That these two quests are related is part of the point of the book, which grew out of an earlier nonfiction work, “The Cloud Forest,” published in 1961.

“The Tree Where Man Was Born” (1972). This deft piece of nonfiction brings together reflections from half a dozen trips to East Africa over a dozen years. Blending a naturalist’s eye with aspects of sociology and travel writing, it moves fluidly from reflections on life in the bush to the experiences of anthropologists and other researchers.

“Far Tortuga” (1974). This novel, about a turtle fishing expedition in Nicaragua, is regarded as Matthiessen’s most experimental for its stripped-down sense of space and silence, the almost poetic minimalism of its prose. But like all great novels, it’s entirely accessible, and its spareness is the key: a way of letting us experience the narrative on its own terms, without the author interceding or explaining anything.

“The Snow Leopard” (1978). Perhaps Matthiessen’s finest book, “The Snow Leopard” traces a two-month expedition with naturalist George Schaller to the Himalayas; it won two National Book Awards. The center of the project, though, involves its blending of that experience with a more internal narrative about the author’s relationship with his wife Deborah, who died of cancer in 1972.

“Shadow Country” (2008). Thirty years in the making, this extended novel, which won a 2008 National Book Award, revolves around Edgar Watson, an early 20th century Florida planter shot to death by his neighbors after killing as many as 55 people. Built around a chorus of voices, including Watson and his son, it offers an investigation of both myth and history, and the shadowy territory in which they intersect.

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Peter Matthiessen, award-winning writer, has died at 86

Peter Matthiessen dies at 86; acclaimed author wrote ‘The Snow Leopard’