![]() His own father, Grandpa Sawtooth, left behind debt and a dead-end mining job in Ohio to seek out in the Florida islands the American Eden realtors promised, “with a greed that aspired to poetry.” Instead, he got the island Swamplandia!, where he, his children, and his grandchildren could shed their mainland names and, “without a drop of Seminole or Miccosukee blood. Father Bigtree named himself Chief, and that he prefers that title to Dad speaks to his unusual style of parenting. Like many other life forms taking hold in the swamp, the Bigtrees are technically a nonnative species. through over three hundred thousand gallons of filtered water.” Her husband, Chief Bigtree, operates the spotlight while Ava, her older sister Osceola, her brother Kiwi, and 265 tourists look on. Hilola Bigtree, mother of three and alligator wrestler extraordinaire, is perched on a diving board in the dark, directly above a pool where “dozens of alligators pushed their icicle overbites. “Our mother,” she says, “performed in starlight.” ![]() At the start of Swamplandia!, Karen Russell’s debut novel, 13-year-old narrator Ava Bigtree reflects on her family’s unusual business. ![]()
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