I haven't posted anything in a while because I have been in the swamps with Ava Bigtree. Written by Karen Russell, Swamplandia! is set in an alligator theme park in the swamps of Florida. It could hardly be a more foreign landscape, but the story was all too familiar for me.
Ava's mother dies and her family is then faced with the possibility of losing her home while her family falls apart. Well, that last part is not familiar. But last year my father died and my family lost their home. I think our family has held together much better than Ava's does, thank goodness.
It is hard to explain the plot of Swamplandia! because there are so many twists and turns. It was at times painful to watch the family struggle. Ava's naivete hurt me, and sometimes her. Her poor brother tries so hard to make something of himself so he can save his family, but he is no better equipped to live on the mainland than the rest of his family. He continually mispronounces big words because he has only ever seen them in books, but never actually heard them in conversation.
In conclusion, I guess I would say that the writing is excellent, the story is engaging, the characters are real, but this book is not for the faint of heart. It made me think of some of the Southern Gothic Fiction books that I read in college--definitely not light reading. But great literature all the same.
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