A very good book, well worth reading, but somehow falls short of astounding or perfection. It tells the story of the (self-named) Bigtree family who live in a Florida swamp/island and operate Swamplandia!, a decaying alligator wrestling attraction. The story opens with "The Beginning of the End" as a slick new attraction opens on the mainland, threatening Swamplandia! The father goes off to fix the situation, his eldest son runs off to work at the new attraction, and the youngest daughter goes on a journey to the "underworld" to find her sister who she thinks has been kidnapped by a ghost.

An aura of magic lies over the entire book but at times the stark, depressing reality that these dreams and delusions float over is exposed. In the end, it is an unconventional family story that deals in only partial and ambiguous triumphs of reality over fantasy.