"The Antidote," Reviewed by William Winkler

American author Karen Russell’s debut novel “Swamplandia” (2011) employs magical realism to move the narrative of a family’s attempt to salvage the future of their failing Everglades-based theme park.

Russell uses the same literary technique in her most recent novel.

“The Antidote” is set in fictional Uz County, Nebraska, named after the homeland of ill-fated Old Testament character Job. The story centers around Black Sunday, one of the 1935 dust storms devastating the Dust Bowl of Nebraska and adjacent states, darkening the sun and scouring the already denuded topsoil.

Four principal characters are at the heart of the story;

·      Harp Oletsky is a second generation Uz County wheat farmer, son of a Polish immigrant. Oletsky’s acreage is the only verdant patch of Uz County for reasons neither he nor anyone else can fathom. When he is elected president of the Grange, the local farmers organization, he uses his platform to advocate for societal change.

·      Asphodel Oletsky, Harp’s niece, daughter of his murdered sister. is the skilled captain of the local girls basketball team. She becomes an apprentice to The Antidote.

·      Antonia Rossi (The Antidote) is the prairie witch of Uz County. She has the ability of “taking deposits,” listening, for a fee, to memories her customers wish to be freed of, memories that can be withdrawn at a later date if need be. She began to develop this skill while detained at a state-sponsored home for unwed mothers. It was there she bore a son who was taken from her at birth and who, she was untruthfully informed, had died. Her life’s goal is to find her son and reconnect with him.

·      Cleo Allfrey is a photographer for one of FDR’s New Deal projects, sent to Uz County to document the lives, successes and failures of the rural inhabitants. When her government issue camera was destroyed, she purchased another from a second-hand store, only to discover that the photographs she exposes are true to the location, but not the time, developing prints as far back as the 1700s and as far into the future as the late 21st century.

Together these four slowly uncover the lies and deceit of the malevolent and cruel local sheriff and succeed in removing him from office.

“The Antidote” will appeal to readers who enjoy historical fiction and are willing to embrace imaginative embellishments of such stories.

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