Swamplandia! in Oly Reads

Apr 02, 2012 Agathafrye rated it really liked it

Shelves: literary

Hmmm, still thinking. There were parts of this book that were just outstanding, and I was eating up the author's marvelous language and great characters, but the last third of the book took some turns that left me... unsettled. The ending? I just don't know. I'd still recommend it- for all of its flaws, it's still an incredibly unique and brave novel. Plus- alligator wrestling! Who doesn't want to read about that? ...more

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Sep 18, 2012 Susie rated it liked it

I wish I could give it two different ratings...one for the beauty of the language, one for the story itself.....I have to give it 3 stars simply for the prose...I found the author's style enchanting as long as Ava was the focus of the story. Her metaphors, admittedly over-generously saturating this tale like swamp water through your sneakers, were quite engaging. I immediately bonded with Ava, Kiwi, and Ossie, but it is a weird story that ends like the author is hurrying to wrap it up to meet so I wish I could give it two different ratings...one for the beauty of the language, one for the story itself.....I have to give it 3 stars simply for the prose...I found the author's style enchanting as long as Ava was the focus of the story. Her metaphors, admittedly over-generously saturating this tale like swamp water through your sneakers, were quite engaging. I immediately bonded with Ava, Kiwi, and Ossie, but it is a weird story that ends like the author is hurrying to wrap it up to meet some kind of deadline. It is a tale about a dysfunctional, isolated family keeping the family business (a vampy, campy alligator wrestling show) going despite waning interest of tourists. When their mother dies from cancer, the family begins to spiral out from each other in a crazy fashion...the father leaves the family for reasons unknown....grandpa goes into a nursing home...one daughter becomes obsessed with the supernatural, searching naively for a boyfriend from the netherworld...the son leaves the island in hopes of saving the family and business from financial ruin,...and the youngest daughter is seduced by a stranger into leaving the island 'to search for her lost sister.' In a sense, the three are searching for something that will give their life meaning and help them balance the miserableness of their decaying family life against the need for and love of it. What Russell ends up giving us is a story that, even in its resolution, feels unresolved, and as unnatural as a red alligator. It's one of those books that makes you think, "I could have written a better ending than this." Much like other reviewers, I keep thinking about this book, looking for some larger reason to this story, as if the author was trying to share some opinion about life with the reader. In the end, I don't think I will read this book again any time soon, if ever, but I love the beauty of most of the narrative and wish I had my own copy (I borrowed a library copy) just so I could highlight some of Russell's grand descriptions, as well as many of the more intimate, quirky ones; to reread just those highlights, to remind me as a writer how powerful and beautiful language can be. ...more

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Feb 07, 2011 jess rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2011, audiobook-d, fiction, ladyish, 2012-tob

When I started reading this book, oh my god, I was so embarrassing. I was recommending it to everyone all the time, at the doctor's office and on twitter and I need to learn not to do that before I finish the book. Swamplandia! is too disconnected from itself. I find it difficult to recommend. I wanted to love this book, and I ended up only kind of liking it. I'm going with two stars instead of three because I felt tricked!

The book tells the story of Swamplandia!, a gater-wrestling theme park ru When I started reading this book, oh my god, I was so embarrassing. I was recommending it to everyone all the time, at the doctor's office and on twitter and I need to learn not to do that before I finish the book. Swamplandia! is too disconnected from itself. I find it difficult to recommend. I wanted to love this book, and I ended up only kind of liking it. I'm going with two stars instead of three because I felt tricked!

The book tells the story of Swamplandia!, a gater-wrestling theme park run by the Bigtree alligator-wrestling dynasty in the Everglades. Hilola Bigtree was a beautiful, sparkling lady wrestler who died of cancer suddenly. Her death begins the decline of the Bigtree dynasty. Dad, the Chief, leaves the kids alone and disappears on a "business trip." Ava's sister Ossie falls in love with the ghost of The Dredgeman and follows him to the spirit world so they can be together. Kiwi leaves Swamplandia! to find an education beyond amusement park homeschooling and takes a minimum wage job at a competing amusement park to resolve the family's debts. Kiwi subsequently provides some of the most boring passages of the book and possibly my life. Ava Bigtree is left alone, thirteen years old and suddenly in charge of almost a hundred alligators and a closed, decaying amusement park. The magical realism and character-building are lush and rich against the backdrop of this ancient, primordial swamp full of gnarly beasts that Ava wrestles with. The themes of family mythology, abandonment and grief were powerful. Then, Ava sets out on this futile Huck Finn journey through the Everglades that results in horrible experiences and a baffling ending.

In short, I think you will like the first part of the book or the second part of the book, but I'm not sure who could possibly like both.

Swamplandia! felt derivative of Geek Love, which I was excited about at first but grew tired of. Karen Russell has said "...a book that was huge influence on me was Katherine Dunn's "Geek Love," which also tells the tale of this sort of carnival family where all kinds of weird domestic rights are inverted." I don't think it's impossible for me to like a book that derives inspiration from one of my all-time favorites, but the author would need to go someplace spectacular with that inspiration and Karen Russell just didn't.

FINAL NOTE: I am something of a name nerd and I find it unbelievable that a couple who names their first two kids KIWI and OSCEOLA would name their youngest AVA. I mean, I see what you were doing, Karen Russell, where AVA means bird and then you introduce the BIRDMAN in this predestined way, but no. This irritated me for the whole book. ...more

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Jun 21, 2011 Patty rated it it was ok

I don't know if I'll finish. Started out great and is currently taking a turn for the worse. Well see. UPDATE: I give. Not worth finishing. The bird man has done me in. V. Disappointed. ...more

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