Karen Russell's book closer?
As promised, the New Yorker has begun posting video of its Valentine's "Love Is Strange" Speakeasy, and we get highly watchable readings from Jeffrey Eugenides — already discussed here — and Karen Russell.
Russell, you may remember, has shown up in this blog since May 2004, when she was Nerve's Strumpet22 and on her way to cool and known young writerdom. This video brings no news of Russell's coming book, a follow-up to her terrific St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves collection of short stories, but her appearance now seems promising.
Other potentially good news? Her agent has a blurb: "In Swamplandia!, celebrated young storyteller Karen Russell tells the tale of the Bigtree dynasty, who own a deteriorating alligator theme park and café on the coast of Florida. Russell takes some very contemporary elements, theme parks, real estate wars, and a freakish and individualized American family and injects ancient drama/tragedy into it. The result is rich, stylistically brilliant, and wholly original. This much anticipated first novel will be published by Alfred A. Knopf." No date given, but still.
If you've read St. Lucy's, you know this setting. "Ava Wrestles the Alligator" is the first story in the book and maybe this blog's favorite. Russell notes in one '06 interview about the book that "it picks up where 'Ava Wrestles the Alligator' leaves off." An '07 Esquire column has more: "On a good day, writing about Ava's adventure is pure joy. On a bad day, I want to pull each of my hairs out individually. I'll start to doubt the very premise of the novel. I've got these noisy critical voices inside of me, a mean bunch who I like to visualize as a chorus of spinster aunts. I think they subsist on vinegar and unsalted pretzels; they heckle me continuously as I write. The aunts fill the stands of a dumpy dog track and place dollar bets on how badly the novel is going to turn out. I've found the best way to shut these haters up is to listen to a lot of hip-hop. … [Kanye discussion] … My current favorite is Ice Cube's 1999 hit You Can Do It (Put Your Back in to It). Perhaps Ice Cube did not write this song to inspire first-time novelists. In fact, I'm pretty sure the 'it' in question involves moving your ass at the velocity of a helicopter rotor and having 14 hours of intercourse with Ice Cube. Well, I have reinterpreted You Can Do It for my purposes…"
