Swamplandia!

I've never read anything quite like Swamplandia! (#52) by Karen Russell.  Although she's written critically acclaimed short stories, Swamplandia!  is her first novel.  I had read about this book in NPR Book Notes, and it kept popping up on my Amazon and Barnes & Nobel websites.  After I read the blurbs, I decided I had to read this story because it was set in Florida, where I live. 

On the surface, this book is about a family-run alligator wrestling theme park on an island in the Ten Thousand Islands group off southwest Florida.  At one time, Swamplandia! was nationally famous, with Hilola Bigtree's featured act of high diving into a pool full of alligators and then swimming the length of the pool.  The father, the grandfather and the three children all participate in the shows until Hilola becomes ill and dies.  Things fall apart then, and The World of Darkness, a rival theme park, opens on the mainland.  The core of the book is how the children respond to the changes around them.  Since the family's circumstances aren't exactly normal, neither are the kids' reactions.  Ava, the youngest, hoards a special alligator in hopes that it will restore the family fortunes.  Kiwi, the brilliant oldest son, runs away to earn money at The World of Darkness and in order to study the enemy.  Osceola, the middle girl, becomes obsessed with contacting the souls of dead boys her own age so she can "date" them.

Ms. Russell, a Florida native, has gleefully mixed the geography of southern Florida to create a fantasy landscape, but the descriptions of the Everglades, the "River of Grass" are so beautiful and compelling, you find yourself itching from the mosquitos.  Even though what is happening to the family is grim, the evocation of people, places and events is fanciful.  You keep asking yourself, "Could this have happened?"  In this case the cover art and preface quote from Alice In Wonderland suit this text beautifully.

At our Literary Circle last night, we were discussing the fact that by reading only "classic" books this year that were mapped out a year in advance, we had lost the spontaneity of reading things that really interested us, and that kept us turning the pages to find out what happened next.  In other words, we missed reading a really good story.  That's just what Karen Russell has produced.   I'd encourage you to read this book, especially if you're a Floridian.  Let's give Ms. Russelll a reason to keep on writing.