Book Review: Swamplandia!

Karen Russell's first novel makes implausible happenings richly human.

By Jonathan Shipley
Published: February 8th, 2011 | 12:02am

Karen Russell, a Granta Best Young American Novelist, is the author of the critically acclaimed short story collection St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves. It’s from the final tale in St. Lucy’s (“Ava Wrestles the Alligator”) that Swamplandia!, Russell’s first novel, was born. Thankfully, it’s an entertaining and inventive romp that doesn’t suffer from its spinoff origins. Ava is twelve. She’s part of a famed alligator-wrestling family with their own island theme park in Florida, and her world is beginning to unravel. Her mom suddenly dies. Her sister is having an affair with a ghost. Her brother goes off to work for a rival theme park, World of Darkness, to help keep the family’s park in business. And who knows where her dad is. The delightful thing about Russell and her writing, reminiscent of Aimee Bender, Miranda July, and ZZ Packer, is that no matter how implausible the plotlines or characters, she makes it all seem possible—and also makes it richly and honestly human. Ava is as real as the girl who grew up down the street from you or the one jumping rope at the park across the way, or perhaps the one that’s brawling large crocodilians.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Swamplandia!

by Karen Russell

Knopf, February 2011

336 pages