Customer Reviews

Totch: A Life in the Everglades

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Totch is a fascinating book written in a natural writer's style illustrating how it really was down in the islands.The chapters not only offer us the life of Totch Brown but share photos and history unmatched in any other source I have found. Any reader interested in Florida history and/or anyone who was mesmerized by Peter Matthiessen's trilogy (Killing Mister Watson, Lost Man's River, and Bone by Bone) will revel in this book's information. The photographs add so much to the story offering a glimpse at this rather mysterious corner of Southwest Florida (where else, for example, can one see a photo of Ted Smallwood's store as it looked at the turn of the century?). I read it cover to cover without putting it down, and I turn to it often for Florida history/environmental/sociology information. A great find for any lover of Florida history! Totch offers us all a real glimpse into the lives and lore of inordinately tough, brave people who were real pioneers in a little known and enigmatic part of America.

Peter Matthiessen, author of "Killing Mr. Watson," and a master in is on right, is definitely on the mark in describing Loren G. "Totch" Brown as "a natural-born story-teller." A wonderful account of yesterday's Everglades & its people, "Totch, A life in the Everglades" is so colorful and entertaining you'll almost feel the need to keep the mosquito repellent handy while reading it.

Totch was a devil most of his life, even by his own standards. It is interesting that he repented and claims to have tried to save the very same Everglades that he harvested most of his life. I do understand the reasons. My family is from Everglades City and did the very same things. They, however, have not tried to explain their way of life away and become one of the Park Service's mouthpieces. The book gives an accurate and in depth look at life as it was in a remote and still wild area of America.

This book is a wonderfully informative and touching story of a great and honorable man. Through Totch we learn of a nearly forgotten way of life and we see the Everglades as it used to be. I appreciate his honesty and plainspokeness and I'm thankful Totch made this book to preserve an important history. I also recommend the three movies made about him: Totch Brown's tales of the Everglades and 10,000 islands, The Everglades outlaw Totch Brown, and Yesterday's Everglades.

My first impression of Totch after only 10 pages wasn't very good. But I gave it a chance and I am glad I did. I have kayaked/camped at most of the places he lived and visited in the book. Reading about his experiences and how life was back when he was growing up and relating to my experiences was wonderful. His easy way of telling stories reminded me of some of the people I've met and camped with down in the Everglades - possibly one of those strangers was him...

I totally related and understood most of his situations with nature, mosquitoes, and the weather. Yes, he did some illegal things but you would have to have been raised in the area or at least know the area and the people to really understand.

Highly recommend for anyone who has explored the area and for those interested in the history and how life was in the area.

I received this book after a family member visited Totch country. As an avid historian I immediately dived in to this book and never looked back. It was an honest look at a "time forgotten" by a man who presented his life as it was, the good & the bad portions. Don't hesitate to buy this and take a journey with Touch. This is the real Florida & not the Disney version.
I am making a special trip to Florida in January of 2008 just to visit this place with my two young boys!

Have been paddling, camping and fishing every winter for the last ten years in the Ten Thousand Islands and recently sort of stumbled upon this book -- needing toilet paper after being in the back country for a week -- and paddling by the Smallwood Store(now a museum) in Chokoloskee often mentioned by Totch in this book. It was the closest place to the little beach we pulled up on for lunch. I enjoyed the book so much, actually read it twice since buying it that afternoon in the Smallwood Store (one of Totch's old hangouts). Gave me a tremendous amount of respect for what the early pioneers like Totch and his family had to go through. Despite all the great hardships he details though, what resonated the most to me in his book was how much Totch loved his life outdoors, his wife Estelle and kids and the Everglades and its people as a whole. A priceless bit of personal and Everglades history, and his honest, straight forward, folksy style of writing somehow works. This is truly a MUST read for any paddler or fisherman or woman who has ever entered into the Everglades. What a magical life Totch lived in a VERY magical place. Every time I think of Totch now ... I wanna get back there. His spirit is still in those islands.

Great book about the fascinating life of Totch Brown!! The place still exists inside Everglades National Park. It's a bit hard to find, but if you'd like to see pics of what it looks like today, see @ http://kayakfari.wordpress.com/2011/10/08/moonshine-in-the-10-000-islands/

This book gives you a great look into a little known, very unique area of our state. The narrator is less polished than most and this adds to the enjoyment.
Totch and his family lived in a marvelous place at a time when it was really a frontier, devoid of many modern trappings and conveniences. This area is still kind of a "throw back" and this book shows us why.

We had recently toured the Everglades and this book was a nice added historical insight into the area.