books 2012: Swamplandia!, by Karen Russell

This book was incredibly beautiful, and in many ways I loved it. Russell has a gift for language, and for turns of phrase that stick with you and build themselves into metaphors. There were many things in this book that struck me just the right way. But the ending, though beautifully written, was not what I had wanted. Besides the actual events of the ending, which I found upsetting, it also bothered me a bit that suddenly we were hearing the voice of a much-older Ava looking back, rather than the voice of thirteen year old Ava, which had been so strong and so natural all along. And I wanted one more chapter of Kiwi before the end, I admit it, his chapters were really great and I would have liked to have heard what he thought of the whole thing. But this book broke my heart in a lot of ways - and I'm glad I read it, but if I had known that it would break my heart like this I might not have read it. But I'm glad I read it. And I kind of loved it, but not completely.