Short Story September #20: Ava Wrestles the Alligator by Karen Russell

"My sister and I are staying in Grandpa Sawtooth's old house until our father, Chief Bigtree, gets back from the Mainland. It's our first summer alone in the swamp. "You girls will be fine," the Chief slurred. "Feed the gators, don't talk to strangers. Lock the door at night." The Chief must have forgotten that it's a screen door at Grandpa's--there is no key, no lock."

I picked up St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell at Green Apple Books in San Francisco. C.J. and I went over to see the women impressionists show at the Legion of Honor and decided to have Chinese dinner on Clement Street afterwards. Green Apple Books seems surrounded by Chinese restaurants now. The women impressionist show was not very good, though it features two of our favorite painters Mary Cassat and Berthe Morisot. Lots of canvasses that somebody dug out of their trash bins if you ask me. Both women did much better work, (much much better work,) it's just not in this particular show. But that is neither here nor there.

"Ava Wrestles the Alligator" is the story of two girls who probably should not have been left on their own. That thier father 'slurred' his goodbye suggests he was drunk at the time and he remains gone so long, I began to wonder if he was ever coming back. The sisters are young Ava, our narrator, who runs the alligator farm that is her family's roadside attraction business, and her older sister Osceola (Ossie) who is sometimes possessed by the spirits of deceased men whom she calls her boyfriends. Ava has a serious case of hero worship regarding Ossie and envies her nightly visits from her 'boyfriends'.

The girl's mother died the summer before and one suspects things at the alligator farm have taken a serious turn for the worse since then. Ava talks about how she participates in the feeding and wrestling shows for the local tourists, but all we see is a sad little run down business that no one comes to anymore. Things take a serious turn for the worse and towards the strange when Ava meets a travelling bird man and Ossie decides to run away with her 'boyfriend'. I can't go any further without spoiling and I can't pin-point exactly why I liked this story so much. It was very strange yet it always felt true and I came to like both Ava and Ossie by the end. I'm hoping the rest of the stories in the book will be just as good.

Join the Challenge and win a prize.
If you'd like to join me for Short Story September and win a prize follow these simple steps:
Read a short story.
Write a brief review of it. (Or a long one if you like.)
Post it on your blog or leave it as a comment here. (You can leave a review of any story, you do not have to review the story you are commenting on. Please let me know if it's okay for me to post your review on this blog. If you post the review on your blog please leave a link as a comment.)

You can enter as many times as you like.
Read one story a day, read one story a week, read one story in September.

Prizes: Every reviewed story counts as one entry. The prizes are copies of:

Legends of the Fall by Jim Harrison
Tennessee Williams: Collected Stories
The Ballad of the Sad Cafe and Other Stories by Carson McCullers
The Charlotte Perkins Gilman Reader
Paul's Case ond Other Stories by Willa Cather
Thirteen Stories by Eudoria Welty

You might even win more than one book. Dakota will be randomly selecting the winner on October 1. I'm giving away one book for every ten entries, so review as many stories as you can to increase your chances of winning.