Swamplandia! (Vintage Contemporaries)

Amazon.com Review Guest Reviewer: Carl Hiaasen Carl Hiaasen was born and raised in Florida. He is the author of twelve novels, including the bestselling Star Island , Nature Girl , Skinny Dip , Sick Puppy , and Lucky You , and three bestselling childrenвЂTMs books: Hoot , Flush , and Scat . He also writes a weekly column for The Miami Herald . This was the first time IвЂTMve read Karen RussellвЂTMs work, and I was dazzled. ItвЂTMs very rare, among the tonnage of manuscripts and galleys that land upon oneвЂTMs desk, to come across a young novelist so inventive and versatile, yet so thoroughly in control. Also, IвЂTMm a sucker for any plot line that features man-eating reptiles. Swamplandia! is the story of Ava Bigtree, a 12-year-old alligator wrestler who embarks on an improbable journey through the mangrove wilderness of southwest Florida in search of a lost sister. Young Osceola has run off with a ghost-figure named Louis Thanksgiving, and only Ava knows where to look for them, dreading what she might find. Passages of this fine novel call to mind Conrad, Garcia Marquez and even – for those who have kids – Judy Blume. ThereвЂTMs not a forgettable character in the cast, from AvaвЂTMs flamboyant father, Chief Bigtree, who runs the familyвЂTMs failing tourist trap, to the bedraggled and cryptic Bird Man, who guides Ava on her harrowing trip. Having spent many days in the Ten Thousand Islands, I was enchanted by RussellвЂTMs dream-like descriptions of the tangled and serpentine creeks, the funky and exotic flora, the long stare of circling buzzards. Her prose is both shimmering and stark: “A huge hole in the middle of the ceiling opened onto a clear night sky; it looked as if some great predator had peeled the thatched roof back, sniffed once and lost interest.” Or the way she describes a “cauldron” of moths with “sapphire-tipped wings, a sky-flood of them…They had fixed wings like sharp little bones, these moths, and it was astonishingly sad when you accidentally killed one.” I canвЂTMt recall the last time I came across a character who shines as brightly as Ava, or a first novel that made such a rich and lasting impression. From Booklist Starred Review RussellвЂTMs lavishly imagined and spectacularly crafted first novel sprang from a story in her highly praised collection, St. LucyвЂTMs Home for Girls Raised by Wolves (2006). Swamplandia! is a shabby tourist attraction deep in the Everglades, owned by the Bigtree clan of alligator wrestlers. When Hilola, their star performer, dies, her husband and children lose their moorings, and Swamplandia! itself is endangered as audiences dwindle. The Chief leaves. Brother Kiwi, 17, sneaks off to work at the World of Darkness, a new mainland amusement park featuring the “rings of hell.” Otherworldly sister Osceola, 16, vanishes after falling in love with the ghost of a young man who died while working for the ill-fated Dredge and Fill Campaign in the 1930s. ItвЂTMs up to Ava, 13, to find her sister, and her odyssey to the Underworld is mythic, spellbinding, and terrifying. RussellвЂTMs powers reside in her profound knowledge of the great imperiled swamp, from its alligators and insects, floating orchids and invasive “strangler” melaleuca trees to the tragic history of its massacred indigenous people and wildlife. Ravishing, elegiac, funny, and brilliantly inquisitive, RussellвЂTMs archetypal swamp saga tells a mystical yet rooted tale of three innocents who come of age through trials of water, fire, and air. --Donna Seaman "Stripped down, Swamplandia!, Karen Russell's debut novel, is one more young writer's saga of a dysfunctional family. But Russell is a rare talent." - Jane Ciabattari, NPRThirteen-year-old Ava Bigtree has lived her entire life at Swamplandia!, her family’s island home and gator wrestling theme park in the Florida Everglades. But when illness fells Ava’s mother, the park’s indomitable headliner, the family is plunged into chaos. Her father withdraws, her sister falls in love with a spooky character known as the Dredgeman, and her brilliant big brother, Kiwi, defects to a rival park called The World of Darkness. As Ava sets out on a mission through the magical swamps to save them all, we are drawn into a lush and bravely imagined debut that takes us to the shimmering edge of reality, a harrowing odyssey from which she emerges a true heroine."Ms Russell is one in a million. The proof is in Swamplandia!, a novel about alligator wrestlers, a balding brown bear named Judy Garland, a Bird Man specializing in buzzard removal, a pair of duelling Florida theme parks, rampaging melaleuca trees, a Ouija board and the dead but still flirtatious Louis Thanksgiving. Sound appealing? No, it does not. Unless Ms Russell had you at ‘alligator wrestlers’ — not likely — you may well recoil at every noxiously fanciful item on that list... But wait. Ms Russell knows how to use bizarre ingredients to absolutely irresistible effect ... " - Janet Maslin, The New York Times"Russell has perfected a tone of deadpan wit and imperilled innocence that I find deeply endearing...you never know when a riptide of tragedy might pull away the humour of Swamplandia!" - Ron Charles, The Washington PostLonglisted for the 2011 Women's Prize For Fiction Twelve year old Ava must travel into the Underworld part of the swamp in order to save her family's dynasty of Bigtree alligator wrestling. 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 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • The bravely imagined, wildly acclaimed debut novel from the author of Vampires in the Lemon Grove—about a thirteen year old girl who sets out on a mission through magical swamps to save her family.'Ms. Russell is one in a million.... A suspensfuly, deeply haunted book.'—The New York TimesThirteen-year-old Ava Bigtree has lived her entire life at Swamplandia!, her family's island home and gator-wrestling theme park in the Florida Everglades. But when illness fells Ava's mother, the park's indomitable headliner, the family is plunged into chaos; her father withdraws, her sister falls in love with a spooky character known as the Dredgeman, and her brilliant big brother, Kiwi, defects to a rival park called The World of Darkness. As Ava embarks on her mission to save them all, we are drawn into a lush debut that takes us to the shimmering edge of reality.