Summary
In "Swamplandia!" Karen Russell puts the Bigtree family behind the eight ball and keeps it there for what sometimes seems like a mercilessly long time. The Bigtrees make their living running an aging theme park called Swamplandia! on a small island off the South Florida coast. Lured by billboard ads of a 10-foot alligator surrounded by the Bigtrees "wearing Indian costumes .. although there was not a drop of Seminole or Miccosukee blood in
us," tourists ferry over to the island for the starlight show Chief Bigtree - aka Dad - revs up the mood, keeping the spots on his wife, Hilola, as she dives into a pool of alligators and breaststrokes her way through them. She wrestles them too, as do her kids, Kiwi and 13-year-old Ava, who boasts that she is her mom's understudy.See the full content of this document
Extract
A Family and Its Theme Park
When the tourists finish cheering the show, they can wander through the Swamplandia! Museum with its snapshots of the Bigtrees or buy hot dogs and souvenirs from the shop. With every dime they spend helping and all the Bigtrees working, Swamplandia! just about keeps the family going until disaster strikes a double blow. Hilola dies of cancer, and a sup...
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