I know this book got good reviews, probably by reviewers that know little about Florida. As a native Floridian, I just couldn't get past certain details to get into the book. The family named their daughter Oceola, the name of the greatest war chief of the Seminoles. That these characters had a gator theme park was, frankly, not credible to me. For one thing, gator wrestling is dominated by the Seminole. Just how could outsiders so clueless make it? An astounding book. I did not know what I was getting into when I picked it up to start reading. The world of the Bigtrees became more vivid than my own. Myth and reality became one and the same. This book is about voyages, both personal and physical. It uses mesmerizing language and metaphors that crystallize into strange but perfect (in the sense that they somehow, strangely enough seem to belong) shapes. The struggles of Kiwi, Osceola, the Chief, and Kiwi while they struggled to make their individual beings compatible with the greater world was humbling to be privy to.
