Far Tortuga differs from Matthiessen's earlier novels in its bold and sometimes risky experiments in form.

With a determined avoidance of authorial intrusion, this novel offers a minimum of exposition or explanation.

Characters are thus revealed almost solely through the quality of their voices, with the result that Far Tortuga more often resembles a screenplay than a traditional narrative. Matthiessen has commented upon this feature of the novel, and explains it as necessary in his attempt to create on the turtle boat "a small isolated world, a confined state which nobody could leave, and men who sing the refrains of their bewilderment over and over." Since the voices the reader hears singing here are sometimes unattributed, some have complained that the bewilderment is contagious. But the richly evocative text thus produced, the ominous, almost surreal air that pervades the novel, is undeniable. The narrative fragmentation of Far Tortuga...