Swamplandia, by Karen Russell: Even alligator wrestlers grow up

Swamplandia!
Karen Russell
Vintage Books: New York, 2011
ISBN: 9780307276681

The indomitable Bigtree family has owned and operated Swamplandia!, an alligator wrestling amusement park in the Everglades for decades.  But changes come, as they must, when Hillola Bigtree, matriarch of the current tribe, dies suddenly of cancer, leaving her husband the Chief and their three teenage children, Kiwi, Osceola and Ava to continue running the fading park.  Kiwi, self-proclaimed genius, runs away to the mainland to work for the rival amusement park, ostensibly in the hopes of paying down the mounting debts of Swamplandia!, while Ossie becomes obsessed with the spirit world, convinced she can commune with her ghostly boyfriends.  Chief Bigtree heads to the mainland for an extended business trip leaving Ava and Ossie to run things in his absence.  Meanwhile, Ava, the baby of the family, struggles to accept her mothers death and to understand Ossie.  When Ossie runs away to elope with the ghostly Dredgeman, Ava sets out on a journey to save her that will challenge them all.  Part coming of age tale and part quest, to say this work sparkles with gorgeous descriptive language and crushes you with the sadness of a childhood ending is a vast understatement of Russell's considerable talent as an author.  A Pulitzer Prize finalist, the work is strongly recommended for older high school aged teens and adults for content, complexity in language, and some adult themes.

Tidbits

• Did you do a little "I smell drama!' gasp upon finding out the Pulitzer Committee choose not to award the Fiction prize this year?  Juror Michael Cunningham wrote about the selection process and his thoughts on the maybesortapossible snub of the three finalists. 
• If you read other book blogs, or perhaps have gone to professional conferences in the past year, you've probably heard about the beef between the librarians and the bloggers in attendance over slightly greedy snatching of ARCs.  My two cents?  Everyone calm down and join NetGalley. 
• Quite an interesting take on the lack of parents/horrible parents/dead parents/parents in need of parenting trend in YA, and in some children's books.  I'd personally extend it to reliable, trustworthy adult role models, but that's just me, liking to see reliable, trustworthy adults in teenagers lives, even if they just happen to be background chatter in the story.  I think my authorgirlcrush, Melina Marchetta, deserves some snaps here.  
• Which is probably why I'm going to interrupt my beach vacation, and head to NYC on July 17th, to bask Melina Marchetta's glory.  Melina, brace yourself! I'm really, really excited to share oxygen with you in a totally non-creepy way.  Okay, maybe that is creepy.  Ima play it cool, and hope I am not suddenly struck mute, as I was in 1992 when meeting Ann M. Martin. 
• Remember when I reviewed City of Bones yesterday and told you it was going to be a movie, which you probably already knew about because I'm light years behind these days?  Well, friend.  WELL.  Now there is a sort of unexciting teaser poster you can feast your eyes on, and more information about the movie. 
• The lovely Arianna at Wandering Librarians is not just lovely; she also went to ALA and met my other other Australian author crush, the babely Craig Silvey.  Swoon! (PS. Way to take my cute-author advice, Printz committee.  Well played!) Also?  SHE SAW THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER.  Arianna, just stop making me so swoony jealous over he-yah! 
• Remember last year when I reviewed The Name of the Star, and pretty much dug everything about it except for the lame-o cover?  WELL, my friends, WELL.  Thank GAWD books, like people, can change jackets.  Although this one just kind of says Scandanavian Mystery to me...but I'll just shut up because SO MUCH BETTER.