Sunday, May 6, 2012

Swamplandia! by Karen Russell

Swamplandia! by Karen Russell

Did you know that there was no Pulitzer Prize for fiction awarded in 2012?  The panel couldn't decide.  I like to read Pulitzer prize winning books. They are usually very good reads in my opinion.  This year the finalists were a novella titled Train Dreams, The Pale King and Swamplandia! I've haven't read Train Dreams but will probably look it up.  The Pale King was hysterical but really rough since it was a manuscript found after the death of the author.  And then Swamplandia!  Don't forget the !.

Swamplandia! has all the ingredients of a story I love.  It's set in Florida in a swamp complete with alligators wrestlers, theme parks and wacky tourists.  The Bigtrees who own and run Swamplandia! are crazy and quirky.  They live on an island only accessible by the daily ferry that brings the swarms of people anxious to see real live alligators or Seths as the family calls them, and buy every tacky souvenir imaginable.  Ava, Osceola and Kiwi live a charmed life at the hands of the family business.  Until their mother, Hilola dies from cancer before she has taught them the tricks of her trade.

 When the tourists stop coming after a new park opens called the World of Darkness, the family starts to fall apart.  Grandpa Sawtooth is sent to a retirement home which is a houseboat.  Osceola elopes with a ghost named Louis Thanksgiving, Kiwi runs off in the middle of the night, landing a job at the World of Darkness and Ava is left at home all alone.  A stranger, the Bird Man shows up and agrees to accompany Ava on her search for Osceola and her husband, the ghost.

Karen Russell is a talented author.  I also loved  her short story collection, St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves.  It too is set in my home, Florida. It's not to say that I thought Swamplandia! was perfect.   Osceola and the ghost dragged on too long and Ava's trek through the swamp bored me at times.  But their dramatic rescue drew me right back to where I wanted them to be.  In Florida, at home, and together.



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