Karen Russell makes excessive use of similes throughout her book Swamplandia!, at least in the first half. Some are clever or insightful, such as “We were watching the small TV above her [hospital] bed politely, as if the TV were a foreign dignitary giving an unintelligible lecture…” (on page 106 in the Vintage Contemporaries edition).
But from the very beginning, Russell leans heavily on this figure of speech.
A few examples – “like a caterer with a tray of bitter hors d’oeuvres” (pg. 83); “it was like a sword I’d made, glinting and strong” (pg. 49); “like an anhinga swallowing a fish” (pg. 35); “couples curled their pale legs together like eels” (pg. 4); “[l]ike black silk, the water bunched and wrinkled” (pg. 5).
It could be argued she is using this mechanism to develop the voice for Ana, her main character, as though the girl is trying to fit reality into some order or previous experiences … except she uses the same patterns when she unceremoniously switches to third person for Kiwi’s chapters.
Swamplandia! initially had echoes of Geek Love, Katherine Dunn’s masterpiece, but her simile style slowed and often garbled the narrative. At least that’s one person’s opinion. As with most contemporary fiction, there are plenty of other opinions to counter this negativity.
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