Swamplandia! by Karen Russell: A review

This is a very hard book to categorize. It is part thriller, part paranormal romance, part survivalist family saga, but mostly it is a coming-of-age story. The three Bigtree children, Kiwi, Osceola, and Ava, come of age in various ways in the pages of the book.

The Bigtree children and their parents live on an island in the Florida swamps which the patriarch of the family, the children's grandfather, named Swamplandia. They have a kind of theme park there to entice the tourists and they are hanging on to solvency by a thread. Their shtick is wrestling alligators and the star of their show and their family is the mother of the family.

We meet them as tragedy strikes. Their star, the anchor of the family, falls ill from ovarian cancer and dies. The Bigtrees are bereft and at a loss as to how to cope. The theme park flounders under the loss of its star and competition from a rival park called The World of Darkness. It is what Ava calls "the beginning of the end."

The Bigtrees' story is revealed through the eyes of Ava, the youngest child, and Kiwi, the oldest. We don't hear much from Osceola (Ossie) and yet it is her actions and her fate that are the impetus for much that happens here.

Kiwi leaves the family, running away to the mainland, after stealing money from his father. He gets a job with The World of Darkness - or The World as its employees call it - but his main goal in life is to make enough money to save his family's theme park.

The head of the family, Sam, called Chief, leaves the park to go to the mainland "on business." He leaves teenagers Ossie and Ava alone to care for the alligators and their home.

Ossie leaves the family in another way - mentally, psychologically - as she becomes "possessed" by the ghost of a dredgerman named Louis Thanksgiving. Eventually, she runs away to "marry" him.

Ossie's departure in the middle of the night leads 13-year-old Ava to follow her into the swamps to rescue her. In this she is aided(?) by a mysterious character known as the Bird Man. What Ava endures in the swamps as she tries desperately to find Ossie - and maybe her dead mother as well - tests the very limits of her physical and mental strength.

This is a beautifully written book, full of magical realism, and it has a poetic voice and a joy of life that even in its darkest moments - and there are some - make for an uplifting and heartwarming story. Some might find the ending unsatisfying. Not all the loose ends are tied up neatly. Not all sinners are punished, at least as far as we know. But the swamp holds many secrets and I prefer to believe that one of those secrets is the just fate of the biggest miscreant of all.

This is a vividly entertaining book. Easy to see why it was one of the finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for 2011. Hard to believe that it was Karen Russell's first novel.

Poetry Sunday: Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver

How about we share another Mary Oliver poem? After all, you can never have too many of those. In this one, the poet seems to acknowledge that it is often hard to simply live in and enjoy the moment, perhaps because we are afraid it can't last. She urges us to give in to that moment and fully experience the joy. Although "much can never be redeemed, still, life has some possibility left." Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is no...

Poetry Sunday: Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney

My mother was a farm wife and a prodigious canner. She canned fruit and vegetables from the garden, even occasionally meat. But the best thing that she canned, in my opinion, was blackberry jam. Even as I type those words my mouth waters! Of course, before she could make that jam, somebody had to pick the blackberries. And that somebody was quite often named Dorothy. I think Seamus Heaney might have spent some time among the briars plucking those delicious black fruits as well, so he would have known that "Once off the bush the fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour." They don't keep; you have to get that jam made in a hurry! Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney Late August, given heavy rain and sun For a full week, the blackberries would ripen. At first, just one, a glossy purple clot Among others, red, green, hard as a knot. You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust ...

Poetry Sunday: Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman

You probably remember poet Amanda Gorman from her appearance at the inauguration of President Biden. She read her poem "The Hill We Climb" on that occasion. After the senseless slaughter in Uvalde this week, she was inspired to write another poem which was published in The New York Times. It seemed perfect for the occasion and so I stole it in order to feature it here, just in case you didn't get a chance to read it in the Times . Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman Everything hurts, Our hearts shadowed and strange, Minds made muddied and mute. We carry tragedy, terrifying and true. And yet none of it is new; We knew it as home, As horror, As heritage. Even our children Cannot be children, Cannot be. Everything hurts. It’s a hard time to be alive, And even harder to stay that way. We’re burdened to live out these days, While at the same time, blessed to outlive them. This alarm is how we know We must be altered — That we must differ or die, That we must triumph or try. ...

The Nature of Things

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