The Antidote

A book about the dust bowl, the Great Depression, the New Deal, and wrongs done to Native Americans? This sounded underwhelming and boring to me but I'd read Karen Russell before and had faith regardless, and boy was that faith justified. Very quickly you're immersed in a rich tapestry of gritty hardships, dusty landscapes and tempestuous weather through the four chapter-rotating viewpoints of our protagonist conglomeration. There's Harp, a lonely wheat farmer who's crop is mysteriously doing better than all his peers'; Aphodel, Harp's firecracker of an adopted niece, a quirky teen that uses her love of basketball as therapy to deal with the recent murder of her mother; then there's Cleo, the government photographer sent from back east to capture the trials and tribulations of the dust bowl Nebraskans; and finally, there's our namesake The Prairie Witch, that goes by the name 'The Antidote' for reasons you'll soon come to appreciate. Oh, and there's a bonus viewpoint that drops in every now and then, the enigmatic Scarecrow. This clutch of unlikely compatriots must come to terms with everything from twisters of suffocating particulates, to unaccounted for murderers, to bumpkin bigots and chauvinistic sheriffs, not to mention supreme powers of a supernatural nature. It's one hell of a bumpy pickup truck ride!

Upon finishing this book and shelving it in a place of honor amongst the grand masters of literature, I can hardly see for the tears in my eyes. Tears of joy and sorrow fighting each other for space. I'm absolutely blown away by this book's magnificence. This is Babe Ruth pointing at the fence and going yard, a rating-scale demolishing masterpiece.

Thank you Karen Russell for enriching my life. Unforgettable.