Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of Swamplandia!

Swamplandia!
Swamplandia!
Author: Karen Russell
Genre: Literature & Fiction
Book Type: Paperback
reviewed on + 17 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1


More like "A Thousand Acres" by Jane Smiley or "The Prince of Tides" by Pat Conroy than the fantastic romp promised by the garish colors and the exclamation point on the cover promise. This is a coming-of-age story for three teens who find themselves tossed out of the nest following their mother's death from cancer. The story is itself a kind of swamp -- full of the smell of death, languid, lulling, the buzz of insects marking the passage of time, but everywhere you look the stubborn strength of life bursting through.