The Antidote

This novel by Karen Russell is set in the fictional town of 1935 Uz, Nebraska--right in the heart of the dust bowl and still struggling with the repercussions of the Great Depression. Some books are notable for drawing the reader in with the opening sentence or paragraph, but this one will deter many readers with a prologue which describes a hideous act of animal cruelty. Chapters are told from several different characters' points of view. One of the magical elements of this historic novel is the presence of what are called "prairie witches," who can store people's painful memories until the owner wants to retrieve them -- if ever. In this way Antonina Rossi, was the prairie witch of Uz, says she can be the antidote to guilt, shame and other undesirable thoughts. The sheriff of Uz has  often coerced Antonina into hearing and storing the memories of prisoners who the sheriff wants to prevent from complaining about their abuse at his hands. Prairie witches go into a trance whenever someone shares their memories so they don't recall what they are told, but Antonina knows that there are terrible things going on. When she loses her abilities to store and retrieve memories during the April 14, 1925 "Black Sunday" dust storm, she takes under her wing a local teenage basketball staar named Dell, short for Asphodel. Together they concoct a scheme to offer fake memories to those who come to retrieve memories. Dell has recently lost her mother to a murderer and has come to live with her uncle Harp Oletsky, a farmer who seems unexplainably been spared some of the worst effects of the drought and dust storms. The main narrators are rounded out by a New Deal photographer, Cleo Allfrey, who is traveling the west to provide pictures that would support Roosevelt's agenda.  Cleo comes into posssession of a camera which takes picture not of what is seen through the lense but instead of what historically existed or what could possibly exist in the future on that piece of land. She says of this inexplicable phenomenon that "The emptiness of any place is an illusion.  That's what this camera has taught me. Any piece of earth is brimming over with living (p. 319)."There are a couple of ancillary narrators, too: a sentient scarecrow, which is also spared the ravages of the storms, and a cat. All are ultimately involved in an effort to reveal the cover up of the sheriff, who has arrested and sentenced to death a young hobo for the murder of several women in the area, including Dell's mother. 

The Washington Post praises the book, noting at one point in their review, "what’s wondrous about “The Antidote” is how implacably it keeps swelling, gathering up swaths of history. In some sections, we’re drawn into a brutal institution for unwed mothers, which allows Russell to examine the way sexual roles were proscribed and enforced to control young women. We learn about Polish peasants who escaped oppression in Europe to settle in Nebraska, Native Americans who were removed from this land to make room for White farmers, and the agricultural malpractice that contributed to the Dust Bowl." 

NPR calls this a "spellbinding" and "epic American novel." Kirkus also praises, saying "Russell has always expertly woven the strange into depictions of the everyday, and her long-awaited second novel is no exception." They close with these comments: "A singular, haunting vision that fearlessly excavates the past and challenges the reader to face the future head-on. A storytelling tour de force that lives up to the promise of its name." Publishers Weekly calls it "an inspired and unforgettable fusion of the gritty and the fantastic." The New York Times says the book "blends speculative and fantasy elements with rich language and vivid characters in an effort not to escape reality but to comment even more thoughtfully on it....Sometimes you need to invoke the impossible to capture the truth."They go on to praise, "Russell’s lyrical writing dazzles on every page."