In fact, until I see a novel that changes my mind, I will assert that Russell is a short story writer, not a novelist. “I bet her short stories are really good,” I remember thinking to myself.Īnd they are. I could feel in my bones that Russell’s writing was something special, and I desperately wanted to like it. But then the book got stuck in a long and swampy middle that felt like a hunt though the muck for a way to end things. The book had started out so good: rich, masterfully-written imagery, interesting characters, a fantastically bizarre situation. To be honest, I skimmed the second half of Swamplandia! I felt terrible about it. You also might think (as I do) that she’s often better at creating these situations than she is at resolving them. You know she excels at creating bizarre, slipstream worlds filled with eccentric characters in curious situations. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, you know that Russell’s genre of choice is the modern fable. If you read Russell’s Pulitzer Prize nominated novel, Swamplandia!, or her first collection, St. “But it’s also really good.”Īnd that, as it turns out, describes most of the stories in Russell’s delightful new collection: funny, clever, sad, weird. Hayes thinks that this blind old sheep might be his wife.” “It’s about how some of the former presidents are reborn as horses on a farm,” I said finally “And Rutherford B. “Well…” I paused, knowing that whatever summary I gave wasn’t going to come out right. “Oh no!” I moaned, pressing my hand to my heart. Apparently his theoretical physics book wasn’t quite as amusing. “What is it?” my boyfriend finally asked. I was sprawled in the grass at the park with my boyfriend, reading Karen Russell’s short story collection, Vampires in the Lemon Grove, and laughing out loud.

Vampires in the lemon grove characters