February 21 - "Ava Wrestles the Alligator"

“Ava Wrestles the Alligator”
by Karen Russell
St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves (2006)

* * * * (Great) Realistic

Ava and her older sister Osceola are left on their own in Swamplandia! until their father, Chief Bigtree, returns. Ava struggles to hold on to her sister who nightly runs wild, possessed by the spirit of her ghost boyfriend, Luscious, while also dealing with loneliness of abandonment.

Now this is a well-crafted story. The sentences have a rhythm and excitement, and the story unfolds nicely. I’m still missing the deeper meaning – maybe – but that doesn’t stop me from the pure enjoyment of wandering through Swamplandia! beside its young watchgirl. I particularly enjoyed the descriptions of the setting – the swamp, both at night and in the early moments of the dawning day.

“Swamp dawns feel like bearing witness to a quiet apocalypse. Infinity comes lapping over, concentric circles on still water. It’s otherworldly, a river of grass, and a red needle of light on the horizon.”

And there are moments throughout the story when the actions and thoughts of Ava no longer seem like the actions of a fantastical girl living an amusement park life of gators and Bird Men, but instead of a lonely girl, as ordinary and lost as the rest of us.