REVIEW - A Land Remembered

As a new resident of Florida, I want to know the story of my new State. When I ask people to recommend a book, the title of a historical novel frequently surfaces: A Land Remembered by Patrick D. Smith (1984. Pineapple Press, Sarasota, Florida).  It also comes in a “Student Edition” which I have not seen. This review deals with the full work.

The book traces the imagined history of three generations of McIveys from the time the first settler moved into the scrub region from Georgia, until the exploitive grandson died with regret for the raping of the land. It is a graphic narrative of the struggles, defeats, persistence, tragedies and exploitation common to the era from 1863 to 1968. The author’s deft development of the characters of the three central men (Tobias, Zech, and Solomon) is superb as they move from conscientious respect for the land to pragmatic accumulation of wealth at the land’s expense.

The reader, map in hand, learns much about the character of the terrain, and the early spirit of some communities such as Fort Drum, Arcadia, and the now lost cattle port of Punta Rassa.

I do not know anything about Patrick Smith; but I felt he may have expressed some of his own anger for the commercialization of the Sunshine State. If that is the case, the book became a victim. It is definitely not a Little House On the Prairie read for the whole family. The foul language of anger grows more intense with each generation and climaxes in a viciously profane monologue which, in my opinion, constitutes overkill. There is also romantic amorality in the treatment of the sexual realities of the pioneer era.

That having been said, with those disclaimers in mind, I can say the book does give a robust “experience” of the rugged back story of the State my wife and I now call home.