I genuinely don't know what to think about this book. I put it down about 2/3rds of the way through, because I thought it was too twee and self-absorbed and ridiculous. But I read a review that said the tone of the book changes, so I picked it up again. And the tone did change, and I was horrified. I feel bad, because it's like this book just can't win with me. But there you have it: this book just can't win with me.

 

The eponymous "Swamplandia" is a down-at-the-heel gator-wrestling tourist attraction deep in the Florida Everglades. Its spiritual and fiscal heart is Hilola Bigtree, the wife and mother. When she dies of cancer, the whole thing falls apart - both literally and figuratively.

 

The key players in Swamplandia are Kiwi (a teenage boy), Osceola (a teenage girl), and Ava (a girl just barely thirteen). Their father, The Chief, abandons them. I found it difficult to swallow the novel's too-sweet, fairytale charm, because I kept thinking about their father. He leaves them on their island, with no resources and no means of support, without any form of adult supervision, so that he can travel to the mainland "on business." 

 

I get that parents sometimes have to make difficult choices in order to support their children. But surely The Chief would have brought his kids with him to the mainland. Or sent them off to some distant relative in his absence. Would a father really just leave his kids alone on an island without a word of comfort? And if he would, doesn't that make HIM the bad guy in the story? 

 

The book doesn't come down nearly as hard on the Chief as it ought to. But this may be due to the fact that we see it through the eyes of two unreliable narrators, each in their own separate narrative: Kiwi, who travels to the mainland on his own adventure, and Ava, who travels through the swamp on hers. 

 

I have limited patience for books that employ unreliable narrators. It's not Swamplandia's fault. I just do.

 

Ava is chasing after her sister, along with the Bird Man, a freaky hobo who wears taxidermy bird skins and claims to be magic. As for how that little foray turns out, I blame the Chief for this, too. If in the end the family unit is reunited, all I could do is enumerate reasons why it shouldn't be.  

 

I had trouble seeing past the child endangerment to enjoy the gothic whimsy. My fault, obviously, since a lot of people really liked this book. But… I just couldn't dig it.