She survives because of her unique fitness in this strange environment.Īlternating between Ava’s fantastic voyage in the swamp and Kiwi’s struggle in his over-chilled dormitory room under The World of Darkness echos the inherent liminality of life in Florida, where land and water combine, weather and sea rise change the shapes of coasts, and the results of man-made canals and drainage projects are evident in historic droughts, invasive species and sink-holes. Like the Seminoles who lost their leader, Osceola when he was captured by deception, under a flag of truce, a century ago, Ava is also betrayed.
Despite her Ohio forebears, Ava is a real native of the swamp environment, like the Indians she is dressed up to resemble. The swamp is the otherworldly place for Ossie to meet her ghostly boyfriend, yet it is also her and Ava’s back yard. Ten Thousand Islands is not merely alligator country, it is the uncanny river of grass, the haunting gloom in the ever-changing mangrove tunnels, peat bogs, endless sawgrass prairies, abandoned stilt houses and shell mounds left by primordial Native Americans. The strange and mysterious Everglades form the essential element for Ava’s journey to the underworld. The book originated as a short story, titled “Ava Wrestles the Alligator”, published in the Summer 2006 issue of the literary magazine Zoetrope: All-Story. Set in the Ten Thousand Islands, off the southwest coast of Florida, it is the story of the Bigtree family of alligator wrestlers who live on Swamplandia!, an alligator-wrestling theme park. Swamplandia! is a 2011 gothic swamp novel by Karen Russell.
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