Helpful Score: 2
Ava Bigtree and her family, the Bigtree tribe, live on one of the Ten Thousand Islands near Florida. They live in Swamplandia!, an alligator wrestling attraction that they all operate and perform in. This isolated area and unusual upbringing is all Ava knows until her mother's premmature death. Following her mother's death, Swamplandia! isn't able to pull in the tourists as it was before. Ava's father is delusional regarding the future of Swamplandia! and her sister, Osceola, is dating a ghost. That leaves Ava and her brother, Kiwi, to try to save their home. Kiwi runs off to the mainland to try and help with his father's debt. Shortly after Kiwi leaves, Ava's father heads out for a "business trip" leaving Ava and Osceola alone on the island to care for the alligators. Oscelola announces that she is eloping with her ghost boyfriend, Louis Thanksgiving, and disappears into the swamp. Ava leaves Swamplandia! on a search for her sister with a Birdman as her guide.
I'm not going to lie. I was disappointed with this. After reading St. Lucy's Home For Girls Raised By Wolves, I was left wishing Karen Russell had more for me to read; now I almost regret that wish because Swamplandia! just doesn't live up to St. Lucy's Home For Girls Raised By Wolves. Karen Russell is an extremely gifted writer. I'm just surprised at how much better she is at the short stories than the novel. She can write with this lacy language and spookiness in her stories that leads to an overall beautiful creepiness. In her short stories this is stunning, but in Swamplandia! it was just weird.
Swamplandia! is written in the same vein as Kelly Link's work. It's written wonderfully and I can't say enough for the character development, the writing, and the plot overall. Russell establishes the story, but doesn't seem to know where she's going with it. The swamp as the location helps with the meandering of her storytelling, but by the end, she's grasping at straws. Perhaps it's because she extended one of her short stories into novel length (with bits and pieces of her other stories from her previous book in here, too)? Perhaps I'm too finicky? I can't say.
I can say that this isn't bad - but it's not nearly as great as her previous book
I'm not going to lie. I was disappointed with this. After reading St. Lucy's Home For Girls Raised By Wolves, I was left wishing Karen Russell had more for me to read; now I almost regret that wish because Swamplandia! just doesn't live up to St. Lucy's Home For Girls Raised By Wolves. Karen Russell is an extremely gifted writer. I'm just surprised at how much better she is at the short stories than the novel. She can write with this lacy language and spookiness in her stories that leads to an overall beautiful creepiness. In her short stories this is stunning, but in Swamplandia! it was just weird.
Swamplandia! is written in the same vein as Kelly Link's work. It's written wonderfully and I can't say enough for the character development, the writing, and the plot overall. Russell establishes the story, but doesn't seem to know where she's going with it. The swamp as the location helps with the meandering of her storytelling, but by the end, she's grasping at straws. Perhaps it's because she extended one of her short stories into novel length (with bits and pieces of her other stories from her previous book in here, too)? Perhaps I'm too finicky? I can't say.
I can say that this isn't bad - but it's not nearly as great as her previous book
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