Swamplandia: I wrestled with finishing this book for months. Beautiful writing, of course. Certain parts, like the little story-in-a-story about dredgeman Louis Thanksgiving, are stunning and deserve 5 stars. Ditto re: a lot of the descriptions of the wetlands. There were times when I didn’t care for the Kiwi thread or when the scenes between Ossie and Ava went slow. And the end came too fast especially after the catastrophe that occurs to her in the last 1/5 of the book. Mixed feelings but hey, it’s only her second book. Still curious to see what kind of writer Karen Russell will become.
Next: Seven Names for the Bellbird: Conservation Geography in Honduras
(Source: libhaul)
Swamplandia: And I am just getting to the part of the book where I’m just not sure if I want to read anymore …
The Bird Man, Swamplandia!, Karen Russell
A puffy white face on which, compared to the boots and the patchwork outfit, looked almost ordinary. The man was blinking violently down at me, caught in the light, his pale lips twisted in a grimace…This man’s age was impossible for me to guess. He was younger than my grandfather and older than my brother. His eyes were something terrifying…Bright eyes in a shingled face…The Bird Man frowned, which turned his long nose into a blade. Light caught on his whistle and in the soft, wet curls of hair around his ears, but his eyes were dull as gunmetal. He’d scratched his thin hair into a pompadour—it looked as though every wire were coming disconnected in his brain. (Suggested by phaunosfaunus)
from Nick Cave’s Handwritten Dictionary of Words, 1984
“Nabokov wrote most his novels on 3” x 5” notecards, keeping blank cards under his pillow for whenever inspiration struck. Seen here: a draft of Lolita.”
Filed under: index cards
