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Loading... Swamplandia!by Karen Russell
Swamplandia! lured me into the Everglades, and I became lost in the imaginations, hopes and dreams of the main characters. Not only was it lyrical in its prose, it tricked me into believing in possibilities the way only a child can. I didn't realize I'd been tricked until reality came rushing back at the end of the story. In other words, the author succeeded in completely immersing me in the minds of the children. So much so that even as my adult self saw danger and trouble ahead, even as I grasped the truth of what was happening, I doubted what I was seeing. Because I saw through the children's eyes, I hoped, right up until the end, that my adult self would be wrong. Just as the swamp can prove tricky and deadly if you get lost in it, the author caught me up and blinded me to painful truths that should have been obvious but proved illusive and murky. Like the children, I felt betrayed by the adults in the story, and I was sad when the children lost their innocence. A beautifully, tragic book. (  ) TheLoopyLibrarian | May 15, 2013 |  Just not my kind of book. (  ) Mirkwood | May 10, 2013 | I know the critical reviews for this book were great but it is not a book I would recommend. (  ) librarian1204 | Apr 26, 2013 | This novel has gotten a lot of mixed reviews, but I really enjoyed it. The writing and plot have an almost dream-like quality. Nothing seems quite real, but as a reader I felt terribly invested in it all. The Bigtree family is very unique, and yet as they deal with grief, loss, and teenage angst, they feel very relatable. I can understand why some readers wouldn't like Swamplandia! but as someone who loves Florida fiction, I give it a thumbs up. (  ) ReadHanded | Apr 23, 2013 | Oh, my heart. Wonderful, wonderful writing here. Startlingly, refreshingly original voice. Made me simultaneously homesick for Florida and so so glad that I got out of there... The Bigtrees are a very memorable fiction family and I loved them all so much. Ava Bigtree will stay with me for a long, long time. ( ) KristySP | Apr 21, 2013 |
 Karen Russell, one of the New Yorker's 20 best writers under 40, is certainly very talented. She received wide acclaim for her first book, the story collection St Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, which first introduced the Bigtree family in the story "Ava Wrestles the Alligator". This novel has already received great reviews in the US, and it's easy to see why. Many of her descriptions are quite dazzling. On the retirement boat, "The seniors got issued these pastel pajamas that made them look like Easter eggs in wheelchairs." In the swamp, "two black branches spooned out of the same wide trunk. They looked like mirror images, these branches, thin and papery and perfectly cupped, blue sky shining between them, and an egret sat on the scooped air like a pearl earring." Over 300 pages, the density of the prose can become a bit exhausting, however, and Russell's ability to describe everything in minute and quirky detail is sometimes overwhelming. Toward the end, the narrative takes an unexpected turn, finally unraveling its intricate balance between a child's stubborn imagination and the stark horrors of reality.
No descriptions found. This novel takes us to the swamps of the Florida Everglades, and introduces us to Ava Bigtree, an unforgettable young heroine. The Bigtree alligator wrestling dynasty is in decline, and Swamplandia!, their island home and gator wrestling theme park, formerly no. 1 in the region, is swiftly being encroached upon by a fearsome and sophisticated competitor called the World of Darkness. Ava's mother, the park's indomitable headliner, has just died; her sister, Ossie, has fallen in love with a spooky character known as the Dredgeman, who may or may not be an actual ghost; and her brilliant big brother, Kiwi, who dreams of becoming a scholar, has just defected to the World of Darkness in a last-ditch effort to keep their family business from going under. Ava's father, affectionately known as Chief Bigtree, is AWOL, and that leaves Ava, a resourceful but terrified thirteen, to manage ninety eight gators as well as her own grief. Against a backdrop of hauntingly fecund plant life animated by ancient lizards and lawless hungers, the author has written a novel about a family's struggle to stay afloat in a world that is inexorably sinking.… (more) |
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