David's Pithy Reviews

Five years ago I read my first short story by Karen Russell—the title work of her collection St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves.  Now, think about that title for a second; it takes real guts to give a story a name like that (much less a book with your name on the cover),but it also is probably the most intriguing short story title you’ll ever run across.  I read it and then re-read it right afterwards it was so good—the story lived up to its name, both figuratively and literally, and I eagerly gulped down the rest of the book as well.  The opening story in that collection (“Ava Wrestles an Alligator”) involved a girl who has an older sister who she’s trying to prevent from eloping… with a ghost.  Flash forward five years: Russell has expanded on that opening story to give her reading public Swamplandia! (By the way, how many novels use an exclamation mark in their titles?)  The novel fills in the back-story to that early tale and fleshes out other characters barely hinted at in the original: we meet Kiwi, Ava’s brother, who escapes from the failing gator park that is the novel’s setting only to take a McJob at World of Darkness, a rival theme park.  Russell is just an amazing talent and was singled out by the New Yorker as one of their 20 under 40 writers to watch, and Swamplandia! is rich confirmation of her talent as a fabulous fabulist.