Review of the Day The Antidote by Karen Russell

Deep breath. Russell’s The Antidote is a big complex book that, in my mind, is as difficult yet rewarding to readers willing to engage their brains as Nabokov’s Ada, Gaddis’ J.R., Wallace’s Infinite Jest or Serpell’s The Old Drift.

The story is set in Eastern Nebraska, somewhere between the Platte and the Republic rivers during the dust bowl days of the early 1930s. The plot, which I occasionally struggled with because there are five different main narrators as well as, less frequently, a cat and a scarecrow, is about how the residents of the town try to uncover buried memories, especially in regards to violence toward the indigenous Pawnee people. 

If you have read other books by Russell you will not be surprised to see that she switches between realism and surrealism or magic realism.

One thing the novel has very little of is humor.

The language is occasionally outstanding, although I would have liked to have found more outstanding sentences:

I could feel his eyes drilling into me like two woodpeckers (p.15).

The bus sounded like a mouth chattering its teeth (p. 176).

She was reading the obituaries with the avidity of a sports fan (p. 185).

Cleo and I took careful steps up the old ramp to the oak stage, with its black and gold drapery. It makes every event here feel like a bumblebee coronation (p. 349).

The Antidote will appeal to people who enjoy big challenging novels.

Kindle and Audible audiobook. 400 pgs. 9 April 2026