I am fifty pages from the end of Swamplandia! by Karen Russell. I had a hard time getting into it (I started it and put it aside last fall). But about 75 pages in, it takes off. The author is remarkable in her ability to go from the real to dream world and back again, and making it look completely effortless. The two main characters, Ava and Kiwi, are equally compelling in their individual ways. It also reminds me very much of a playwright I knew at La Mama Umbria who had a day job as a mermaid, and referred to her tail as "the uni-fin."
Illustration: Blexbolex, via the New York Times
