Karen Russell's New Dustbowl Yarn, 'The Antidote'

Summary

All Of It: Episode Summary – Karen Russell's New Dustbowl Yarn, "The Antidote"

Host: Alison Stewart
Guest: Karen Russell, Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of "The Antidote"
Release Date: May 2, 2025

---

Introduction to "The Antidote"

In this engaging episode of All Of It, host Alison Stewart introduces Karen Russell's latest novel, "The Antidote." Described by NPR as an "American epic," the novel intertwines historical events with magical realism, set against the backdrop of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression.

Alison Stewart provides a succinct overview of the novel:

"The new novel from Pulitzer Prize finalist Karen Russell begins with a storm. Readers are transported to the fictional town of Ouse, Nebraska. It's April 14, 1935, and a giant deadly dust storm is sweeping over the land. The day becomes known as Black Sunday, a very real event in American history." (00:28)

She continues to outline the central characters and their intertwining stories, setting the stage for a deep dive into the novel's themes and inspirations.

Concept and Inspiration Behind "The Antidote"

Karen Russell delves into the genesis of her novel, revealing that the initial spark was a vivid image of a woman whispering secrets into an antique hearing device:

"This image of a woman holding an ear horn... bending over to whisper a secret into it. So this was like a mysterious... It's a really visual inspiration." (02:07)

Russell explains how this imagery evolved into a narrative exploring the suppression and storage of memories, reflecting broader societal and personal histories:

"Gradually I came to feel that this was going to be a book about a collapse of memory during the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. And that this woman who was taking these deposits of secrets from people was a kind of living memory bank." (02:37)

Setting and Historical Context: The Dust Bowl and Great Depression

The novel is firmly rooted in the historical context of the Dust Bowl, a severe environmental disaster that exacerbated the hardships of the Great Depression. Russell discusses her fascination with this period, particularly influenced by John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath":

"John Steinbeck's 'The Grapes of Wrath' was one of the first adult novels I ever read. It was so meaningful to me in its orientation towards justice." (03:24)

She connects the historical events to contemporary issues, such as the climate crisis, highlighting the enduring relevance of the Dust Bowl's lessons:

"I found that it gave me a way to better understand our current reality and our climate crisis, how we got here, and also kind of maybe solutions available to us now, too." (05:36)

Character Deep Dive

Antonina, The Antidote:
Antonina is a self-described prairie witch with the unique power to absorb and store the memories that townspeople wish to forget. Her ability serves as a metaphor for collective memory and the suppression of painful histories. However, a devastating dust storm, Black Sunday, disrupts her capacity, leading to significant plot developments.

Del, the Grieving Teenager:
Del is a teenage girl coping with the murder of her mother. Her grief propels her to seek apprenticeship under Antonina, aspiring to harness similar powers to manage her pain. Del's journey represents the struggle to confront and retain one's past rather than bury it.

Cleo, the Newcomer Photographer:
Cleo is a New Deal photographer whose camera possesses the ability to reveal hidden truths. Inspired by real-life figures like Dorothea Lange and Gordon Parks, Cleo's character explores themes of memory, representation, and the power of imagery in shaping collective consciousness.

Themes Explored

Memory and Suppression:
At the heart of "The Antidote" is the concept of memory—what we choose to remember, what we choose to forget, and the mechanisms we use to manage our personal and collective histories. Antonina's role as a memory vault highlights the lengths individuals and communities go to shield themselves from painful truths.

Grief and Motherhood:
Russell poignantly addresses grief through Del's character and juxtaposes it with Antonina's experience of childlessness and loss. The narrative delves into various dimensions of motherhood, loss, and the impact of these experiences on personal identity and community dynamics.

Climate Crisis and Environmental Degradation:
By setting the novel during the Dust Bowl, Russell draws parallels between historical environmental disasters and today's climate crisis. She emphasizes the long-term consequences of ecological neglect and the fragility of human settlements in the face of natural calamities.

Justice and Social Inequality:
Inspired by "The Grapes of Wrath," the novel examines social injustices exacerbated by environmental disasters. It portrays the struggles of marginalized communities, highlighting the intersection of economic hardship and environmental degradation.

Excerpts and Literary Highlights

Russell shares a compelling passage from her novel, providing listeners with a glimpse into the narrative's depth and lyrical quality:

"My job returned to me before my name did. Yes, I am the antidote I learned and remembered. I am a prairie witch... The antidote to lovesickness. The antidote to grief. The antidote to gas pains." (10:46)

This excerpt underscores the novel's magical realism elements and its exploration of the complexities of human emotion and memory.

Significance of Place and Memory

The fictional town of Ouse, Nebraska serves as a microcosm for examining how places hold and reflect collective memories. Russell elaborates on the intricate relationship between the landscape and memory:

"The soil itself is one that's a registry of memory... It takes 500 years to build like one inch of this fertility into the soil. All that photosynthesis, all that living and dying and growth and decay happening in one spot. And that is what was lost." (15:42)

She emphasizes that the erosion of the soil is not just an environmental loss but also a cultural and historical erasure, symbolizing how places can embody and preserve collective memory.

Representation and Creative Choices

A notable aspect of "The Antidote" is the inclusion of Cleo, a black New Deal photographer, drawing inspiration from pioneering figures like Gordon Parks and Dorothea Lange. Russell discusses her deliberate choice to diversify the narrative:

"Gordon Parks was a huge inspiration... I thought about this archive, this incredible archive that anyone can see at the Library of Congress... who and what is omitted from this sort of national story." (13:00)

By integrating Cleo's character, Russell highlights the often-overlooked contributions of black photographers and the importance of diverse perspectives in historical narratives.

Hope Amidst Despair

While "The Antidote" grapples with themes of loss and suppression, Russell conveys an underlying sense of hope. She reflects on the resilience of communities and the possibilities that emerge from acknowledging and confronting painful histories:

"I emerged feeling hopeful because at least some of what I recovered... was a sense of, oh, wow. Many worlds are possible." (08:35)

This optimism suggests that embracing multiple narratives and memories can lead to a richer, more inclusive understanding of history and identity.

Conclusion

In this insightful conversation, Karen Russell reveals the multifaceted layers of "The Antidote." By blending historical events with magical elements, she crafts a narrative that explores memory, grief, and environmental crisis with depth and empathy. The novel not only pays homage to the resilience of those who endured the Dust Bowl but also invites readers to reflect on contemporary challenges and the power of preserving diverse histories.

Alison Stewart wraps up the discussion by reaffirming the novel’s release and Russell's contributions to contemporary literature:

"My guest is Karen Russell. Her new novel, the Antidote is a dust bowl epic with a bit of magic thrown in. It is out now. We're very happy to have you writing again. Thank you so much for being with us." (16:54)

Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Alison Stewart on the novel's start:

  "The new novel from Pulitzer Prize finalist Karen Russell begins with a storm... Black Sunday, a very real event in American history." (00:28)

• Karen Russell on memory collapse:

  "This was going to be a book about a collapse of memory during the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression." (02:37)

• On the significance of the Dust Bowl:

  "I found that it gave me a way to better understand our current reality and our climate crisis." (05:36)

• On the visual metaphor of hole-punched negatives:

  "A hole punch became really resonant to me... a map of what's been lost." (14:28)

• On soil as a registry of memory:

  "The soil itself is one that's a registry of memory... and that is what was lost." (15:42)

• On hope and multiple realities:

  "Many worlds are possible. And there are so many different cultures and ontologies alive with us today." (08:39)

---

"The Antidote" by Karen Russell emerges as a profound exploration of memory, loss, and resilience, woven seamlessly with historical insight and magical realism. This episode of All Of It offers listeners a comprehensive understanding of the novel's themes, characters, and the inspirations behind its creation, making it a must-read for enthusiasts of rich, character-driven narratives.

Transcript

[Progressive Insurance]

All of it is supported by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash? Progressive makes it easy to see if you could save when you bundle your home and auto policies. Try [e-mail] Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states.

[Alison Steven]

This is all of it on wnyc. I'm Alison Steven. The new novel from Pulitzer Prize finalist Karen Russell begins with a storm. Readers are transported to the fictional town of ouse, Nebraska. It's April 14, 1935, and a giant deadly dust storm is sweeping over the land. The day becomes known as Black Sunday, a very real event in American history. That storm changes the lives of the residents of this town. There's Antonina, a self described prairie witch who goes by the name the Antidote. She has the power to take in and store the memories that townspeople would rather forget. But the storm sweeps those memories right out of her. Then there's Del, a teenage girl who is grieving the murder of her mother. She becomes determined to become the Antidote's apprentice. Del's Uncle Harp is left baffled when it seems that the storm has completely spared his home and his crops. And soon a newcomer will head to uz, a New Deal photographer named Cleo, whose camera has special powers to reveal things the townspeople would rather forget. Are you in?

[Karen Russell]

I am in.

[Alison Steven]

All of these characters come together in Karen Russell's new novel, the Antidote, that NPR calls an American epic. That's well worth the wait. The Antidote is out now and Karen Russell joins me in studio. It is a pleasure to meet you.

[Karen Russell]

It's a pleasure to meet you, Alison. Thank you so much for having me.

[Alison Steven]

There are so many different elements to this story. Immediately, like when you dive in, you're like, boom, I'm in. What aspect of the story came to you first?

[Karen Russell]

You know, years ago now I got.

This image of a woman holding an.

Ear horn which for people in 2025, if you don't know, it's an antique hearing device. It looks sort of like a gramophone horn and this person sort of bending over to whisper a secret into it. So this was like a mysterious. It's not how everything starts for me, but it was a really visual inspiration. And I had been writing a lot about kind of the fantasies that cover over real. My home state is Florida, where, you know, it's like fantasy is our big industry. So I and sort of some of.

The backstage costs of like the stories.

That we tell within our families, you know, about our society Our country. So gradually I came to feel that this was going to be a book about a collapse of memory during the Dust bowl and the Great Depression. And that this woman who was taking these deposits of secrets from people was a kind of living memory bank. She calls herself a vault. And that, you know, there's sort of a network of these women who live.

On the margins, and that's their job.

They absorb the things that people want to put aside.

Either they're too precious or they're too painful.

They want to scroll them up and they tell themselves they can withdraw them at a later date. But in this novel, many people don't.

[Alison Steven]

When did the Dust bowl come into the conversation?

[Karen Russell]

I was really fascinated by the Dust Bowl. John Steinbeck's the Grapes of Wrath was.

One of the first adult novels I ever read.

And it was so meaningful to me in its orientation towards justice. We had lived through Hurricane Andrew, and I think one reason I loved it at that age is it was 92.

[Alison Steven]

92 or something. Yes.

[Karen Russell]

Which destroyed our home. So I think I didn't really have. You know, books are such an antidote to loneliness in that way, too. So I felt like this was a reflection of the way everyone can exist under the hammer of the weather. But of course, people's lives are undone and remade in very different ways. So the Dust bowl was fascinating to me for that. But I think I sort of had to write this book to understand what had drawn me to that time period. The Great Depression also always very fascinating to me. And I think part of it is that you really see kind of both injustices, you know, the really unequal lines that kind of divide our society. And you see possibilities too, in the wake of a disaster.

[Unknown]

Ouse, Nebraska.

[Alison Steven]

How would you describe Ouse?

[Karen Russell]

So this is a newborn settlement. It's really only been here for about 35 years. And a lot of this novel is looking at sort of newcomers to the plains and these sort of dreams that get silk screened onto the plains after the Civil War thanks to federal land policies like the Homestead act, the Kinkaid act, the Allotment Act. And it's a town of Polish Americans. One of the characters is a Polish American farmer who's sort of a zero yield man. He has not been very lucky in his farming, in part because these are dry land farmers during a drought and there's no irrigation. The Oglala aquifer hasn't been discovered yet. Right. One of the tragedies or ironies of.

The Dust bowl drought is that people.

Are sitting on top of this aquifer. But at this time, the soil has been tilled to powder very rapidly. In a generation or two, this millennial ecosystem has sor. Been really over tilled, overgrazed. So when the drought comes, there's no.

Anchoring root system to hold the soil.

In place, and everything starts to blow.

[Unknown]

It sounds like you did a lot of research into the dust bowl.

[Karen Russell]

I did.

It's true. But I think one of the reasons that I found that compelling was it gave me a way to better understand our current reality and our climate crisis, you know, how we got here, and also kind of maybe solutions available to us now, too.

[Unknown]

I kept seeing ooze, and I kept thinking of Oz. Yeah, the wizard of Oz.

[Karen Russell]

Well, you know, it's so funny.

It's the name of the town from.

The book of Job. So, you know, these devout Polish American settlers, they see themselves in that story. Right. But I had no idea. A friend of mine was like, you captured the zeitgeist? Wicked. And I was like, you know, this book took me so long to write that even if I had tried to capture any zeitgeist, I would be. Or maybe you did.

[Unknown]

I believe creators, creatives, sense stuff before the rest of us do.

[Karen Russell]

Yeah.

And I cannot deny, you know, there's a witch, there's a cyclone, it's in this region. I mean, I think that movie imprints on all of us.

Right.

I'm gonna meet my niece after this interview, Alison, whose name is Dorothy Russell. So I've sort of given up on saying that it's not an influence.

[Unknown]

That's funny. That's funny. My guest is author Karen Russell. Her new novel, the Antidote, is a dust bowl epic with a bit of magic thrown in. It's out now. So the Prairie Witch, she possesses this vault herself, accepts memories of people that they don't want or they don't want to deal with at the moment. How did this concept of this person who collects memories of others come to you?

[Karen Russell]

Yeah, you know, I think I was aware, I guess, and I think this as many families. Right. Of some of the gaps in my own understanding of, you know, my family. My father's a veteran of the Vietnam War, so that would be my direct.

Personal connection to sort of a history.

That was sublimated, but that I experienced, you know, and so some of, like.

The gaps in a. Missions in people's private histories that can.

Feel so personal and sort of so secret. I think writing this book, it really made me reflect on how, in aggregate, you can get something like a Mass forgetting or a mass denial. You know, in these generational. These transfers of, you know, stories about.

How did we get where we are? Who are we here?

You know, I think so many, you know, so many of my friends are.

The children of immigrants. Right?

And it's that story of how either you know, through chosen or coercive. You know, in the case of Native American students at federal and gene boarding schools, which is another part of this tale, the way that either strategic attacks on memories or sort of people choosing right to participate in this new American project, you know, what is sort of lost along the way, including, like, latent possibilities that I think I started to feel. I think I was thinking when I started this book, it would be about buried horrors. I think that was my assumption going in. And to my own surprise, I emerged feeling hopeful because at least some of.

What I recovered, I think, in this research, was a sense of, oh, wow.

Many worlds are possible. And there are so many different cultures and ontologies alive with us today. Different ways of, like, living here together, different ways of doing farming.

[Unknown]

Yeah. Another character is Del. Del's mother has been murdered. She's moved to Uz to live with her uncle. How has the loss of her mother affected Del?

[Karen Russell]

I think that it's also a book about grief and about motherhood. So Antonina, this prairie witch, is a childless mother. Her mother's stolen from her. She's a teen mother at a home for unwed mothers. And so she has this sort of roaring hole inside her that she's renting.

[Unknown]

Out of storage because her son's been.

[Karen Russell]

Taken away from her. Her son's been taken away from her, and she's just renting that space out. Basically, other people are depositing their histories in her. This girl, Del, she's sort of a feral orphan. I think she's really in flight from her grief. She doesn't want to feel it because she is, you know, an opportunist.

It's the Great Depression. She sees this prairie witch and she.

Thinks, I could be someone like that.

I have this deep ache within me.

And why not try? Why not try to be a witch myself? And she sort of forcibly apprentices herself to the antidote, and the antidote goes.

Bankrupt during the Black Sunday disarm.

So I mentioned this is a novel so much about collapse and restoration. I was thinking about this young person as someone who is so adept at lying. It's like a survival skill for her. And so she's very, you know, when.

This happens, she says, I know just what to do.

We'll counterfeit memories for people.

They'll come to withdraw their deposits. Whatever secrets they told you.

And you don't have anything to return.

You're bankrupt. You don't.

You know, she sort of. During this Black Sunday Duster, she loses them all, you know, lifetimes, really. And this young person's like, it's not a problem. I'm always listening on the party line. I know just what people want to hear. I'll counterfeit some memories for you to just return. And, you know, it goes poorly.

[Alison Steven]

My guest is Karen Russell. Her new novel, the Antidote is a dust bowl epic with a bit of magic thrown in. It is out now. You're going to read a passage for us?

[Karen Russell]

Yeah, I would love to.

So this is during the Black Sunday dust storm. The Antidote wakes up in a jail cell and discovers that 15 years of these deposits have been siphoned from her.

Body while she slept. Like vapor from a leaf.

My job returned to me before my name did. Yes, I am the antidote I learned and remembered. I am a prairie witch. A door swung open onto my life. Now I could picture my rented room in the boarding house. My poster facing the street from the third floor window. Hand lettered for me by the calligrapher in Kincaid Gold. The antidote of ooze. Now accepting deposits, I advertised my banking services as a panacea for every ailment from heartburn to nightmares. Some of my customers, I recalled, had made up a little jingle about me taking the lyrics from my poster. The antidote to lovesickness. The antidote to grief.

The antidote to gas pains.

The antidote to guilt. The antidote to all regret.

The antidote to sweaty palms.

The antidote to daydreaming. The antidote to shame. Most everyone on the Great Plains knew about us. Even those who denied our existence. The vaults. Some called us the Prairie Witches. Now I remembered what I did to earn my bread. What I had been doing since I was a much younger woman. Absorbing and storing my customers memories. Banking secrets for the townspeople of Ouse. Sins and crimes first and last times. Nights of unspeakable horror and dew drop blue mornings. Or who knew what my customers had.

Transferred from their bodies into mine.

These were only my guesses. I disappeared into a spacious blankness during my transfers. A prairie witch's body is a room for rent. A vault to store the things people cannot stand to know or bear to forget.

[Alison Steven]

That was Karen Russell reading from her new novel, the Antidote. You introduced a new deal photographer into the mix. Cleo she's come on assignment to capture what the life is like in the Dust Bowl. I kept thinking, Dorothea Lange, only black.

[Karen Russell]

Absolutely.

[Alison Steven]

First of all, why was the choice to make her a black woman?

[Karen Russell]

Well, Gordon Parks was a huge inspiration, too.

He's a photographer who. He means a lot to me and to so many people. And his memoirs and his, you know, the Learning Tree, a lot of his.

Films and books and photographs, although he.

Was not, he started to work for the Farm Securities Administration a little bit later. But I think reading those books gave me some insight into the life of a photographer, a black photographer during this period. Dorothea Lange, I read a lot of her correspondence, Mary Post Walcott, and I bet a lot of your listeners know about this project. But the New Deal photographers, Arthur Rothstein.

They'Re some of our finest artists.

And I think what was interesting to me was considering, you know, there are photographs that I knew very well, Migrant Mother, that really shaped my understanding of.

This period that I didn't live through.

So I thought about this archive, this incredible archive that anyone can see at the Library of Congress, and the way.

That different political forces and aesthetic choices are shaping what substitutes for memory for.

Us at this collective level, the societal level.

And also fascinating to me was considering.

The things we don't see, who and what is omitted from this sort of national story.

[Unknown]

What they've been edited out of.

[Karen Russell]

Yes.

Yeah, exactly. And people who are interested can go.

And look online too, and see hole.

Punched negatives that for different reasons were rejected.

Right. They weren't circulated, they weren't published.

And that hole punch became really resonant to me.

It sort of.

It sort of felt like a visual metonym for what the book is really interested in and what, you know, what it. A map of what's been lost.

But also the fact that these whole.

PUNCH negatives exist at all and are now available, there's something hopeful to me about that. Right. Or interesting because you can sort of have a sense that there's other possibilities that are made manifest to us in that hole punch. Right. It's not just sort of something that many love. These losses are irreversible.

Right.

But also, wow, there are maps to other realities and there are roads not taken, and there are chapters of our.

National story that if they are included.

Point us in other directions.

[Unknown]

You know, we eventually learned that town is sort of built on a painful history, like a lot of places in this country. We won't explain yet. How do you think a physical place can hold memory?

[Karen Russell]

Oh, my goodness. You know, I think One of the joys of researching was a lot of.

I would have been a tourist in this landscape. But people who were literates of Nebraska.

Helped me to see things that would have been invisible otherwise. Right. So, I mean, the soil itself is one that's a registry of memory. You know, I think one of the tragedies of the dust bowl that didn't, I didn't learn as a young person.

Was that all of this fertility banked.

In the living soil. We're talking like rotations of our planet around the sun. You know, it takes 500 years to build like one inch of this fertility into the soil. All that photosynthesis, all that living and dying and growth and decay happening in one spot. And that is what was lost. That's what gets swept up and lost. And it's, you know, it's not an infinitely exploitable resource. It's like the ecological base of our existence. So I was thinking, oh, my gosh, a sane society would order itself around these processes of life that give us everything. You can see that in places where the soil has been eroded, you see a history of extraction.

So that's one way.

But also, you know, I mentioned like the dendrology, like the, like tree rings that will tell a story of, you can see there in the width of these rings, you know, wow, this is not the first drought that people have survived. So I think also there are all kinds of historical records etched into our landscapes. And thank God, you know, that they're people who, they're scientists who can make.

Those histories explicit to us.

[Unknown]

The name of the book is the Antidote. It is by Karen Russell. It is out now. We're very happy to have you writing again. Thank you so much for being with us.

[Karen Russell]

Thank you for having me on the show, Allison.

[Ira Flato]

I'm Ira Flato, host of Science Friday. For over 30 years, our team has been reporting high quality news about science, technology and medicine. News you won't get anywhere else. And now that political news is 24 7, our audience is turning to us to know about the really important stuff in their lives. Cancer, climate change, genetic engineering, childhood diseases. Our sponsors know the value of science and health news. For more sponsorship information, visit sponsorship.wnyc.org.