In my previous blog post, I raved about Karen Russell’s short story collection St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves. Since then I’ve received an advance copy of her new novel Swamplandia! which centers on a family from one of the St. Lucy’s stories.
Set in the swamplands of Florida, Russell’s novel focuses on the Bigtree family: owners of the theme park Swamplandia!, faux Native-Americans, and alligator wrestlers. The narration oscillates between the youngest Bigtree child Ava and her older brother Kiwi, and it explores the heartache of losing Hilola Bigtree, wife, mother, and alligator-wrestler extraordinaire, to cancer.
In addition to their grief, the family must cope with the loss of interest in Floridian swampland culture and history—essentially the Bigtree way of life and source of pride. Tourists stop coming to see the Bigtrees wrestle their Seths (the Bigtree name for all of their alligators), preferring a new corporate-owned theme park called the World of Darkness in which you can go through a simulated water-park version of “hell.” The World of Darkness becomes a hell for poor Kiwi Bigtree as he joins forces with his family’s enemy to send money home. He suffers through bad food, poor living arrangements, shady co-workers, and a cruel boss for his minuscule paycheck. Meanwhile back in the swamps, his sisters Ossie and Ava venture to their own version of hell through Ossie’s spiritualist ventures and dates with the dead.
I was touched by this quirky family’s heartache and how each of them copes with their hardships. You will be too. I urge you to grab a copy of this book when it’s released in February. Bonus: Karen Russell will be here signing Swamplandia! on March 25, 2011. So get it, read it, then discuss it with Karen Russell herself!
Read Zita’s take on Swamplandia! here. -Kaycie
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