I mentioned the book Swamplandia! at our book club meeting last night. I was torn as to whether I liked the book. I certainly liked the writing, especially the description. At my age, I feel foolish when I have to have a book explained to me. Perhaps ‘explained to me’ isn’t quite right; I need help to like it. So, this morning I went online to read a review of the book. And, I was reminded of the many aspects of the book I did like.
I learned something about geography. “We learn the Everglades’ history of governmental mishandling (the seeds of invasive melaleuca trees were sprinkled from airplanes in the 1940s) and environmental disaster.”
The description of people and places was lush: “Her first-person narration is not a transcription of a 13-year-old voice, but an evocation, in adult language, of a barely adolescent mind-set. This allows for a dazzling level of linguistic invention.”
I agonized with and loved the character of Kiwi: “The central joke is that his home-schooled erudition has left him as ill equipped for mainland life as some time traveler. ‘Telling your fellow workers that you were going to Harvard was a request to have your testicles compared to honey-roasted peanuts and your status as a virgin confirmed, your virginity suddenly as radiant and evident to all as a wad of toilet paper that was stuck to your shoe.’
OK, <blushes> I liked the book and I recommend it. “The plot of “Swamplandia!” is nothing special — dysfunctional family pull apart, then pull together — but the execution is. If the gothic whimsy of this novel is sometimes too self-conscious, the pleasures it offers are unforced.”
BTW, I saw online that a writer is being sought to transform this into an HBO movie. It’s one I would see.
All quotes from the NY Times book review 2011, Feb 3.
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