![]() ![]() "I grew up in this world sort of perfumed with nostalgia for a much wilder version of South Florida," Russell tells Melissa Block on All Things Considered. ![]() The 29-nine-year-old Russell grew up an hour from the Everglades, in a time when projects to dike and dam the swamp led the way for taming some of the swamplands - but her older family members had memories of a more unrestrained place. Swamplandia! closely follows the youngest sibling, Ava, who takes it upon herself to rescue the park from ruin after finances go south and family members disappear. The park, the "number-one gator-themed swamp cafe" in Florida, is run by the Bigtrees, a family that invents their own mythology of being gator-wrestling tribal royalty. In Karen Russell's debut novel, Swamplandia!, set in the middle of the swamps of southern Florida, we find a fictional amusement park full of high-diving gator wrestlers. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, published in 2006. The story of Swamplandia! first appeared in "Ava Wrestles the Alligator," from Russell's collection of short stories, St. Karen Russell was born in Miami and now lives in New York. ![]()
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