The gamble with a book like this is that it will be as weird, sinister, and original as the blurbs on the back cover promise. The cover art reminded me of exotic illustrations from early 20th century children’s literature—for example, the original illustrations for L. Frank Baum’s Oz books. I was hoping for something eerie and peculiar. Swamps, alligators, amusement parks—the setup was promising.
But the weirdness in Swamplandia! loses out to a more latter-day template for Young Adult fiction—the wounded family. The mother of the alligator-wrestling Bigtree clan dies of cancer, and the father and three children must each depart their watery Eden to find a lesser but more viable reality. It’s a fine book with some interesting parts, but it didn’t convince me. It tends to hug the shore instead of sailing off into the unfathomable.
No comments:
Post a Comment