Starts off strong, but slows down a bit in the middle... | The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and...

I listened to this Audio CD for the wrong reasons and came out ahead | The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession (Ballantine Reader's Circle) | Susan Orlean

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	• The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession (Ballantine Reader's Circle) Susan Orlean Ballantine Books, 2000 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 169 reviews view larger image
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The Orchid Thief

I was very pleased with both the condition of the book and it's swift arrival. I was a bit disappointed that it wasn't the original cover, showing the Ghost Orchid.

Starts off strong, but slows down a bit in the middle...

The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean was another recommendation from a friend in terms of a book I would enjoy. And overall, I did enjoy it. Little did I know that a simple flower could have such history and obsession behind it...

This is a true story that covers Orlean's trip to Florida to meet John Laroche, a strange and quirky person who figures as the criminal referenced in the title of the book. Laroche was brought to trial for removing protected plants (orchids) from the Fakahatchee swamp area in Florida, a protected piece of land. He was working with the Seminole Indian tribe at the time, as the land is located on their property. His plan was to get the orchids and start cloning them for sale by the reservation, thereby making "millions" by his estimate. But like many of his quirky plans and schemes, it never quite came to fruition. Orlean follows him around for a period of time, meeting the personalities that make up the orchid world, tramping through swamps up to her waist (and higher in places), and falling in love with the flower that has driven so many people over the years.

The story started off very strong. Her writing is humorous, and Laroche is a character that's easy to laugh at. She captures his bizarre nature and appearance perfectly, and I felt like I knew him quite well by the time the book was done. A large part of the middle portion of the book goes into the history of the orchid along with the history of the people who gave birth to the orchid industry as it is today. That's where I thought things slowed down. The style went from crazy people and interactions to history going back over decades and centuries. While I appreciated the history lessons, it was a noticeable departure from the earlier tone I had expected and enjoyed. It picked back up at the end as she was trying to finish her quest with a sighting of the ghost orchid, and the flavor of the earlier chapters once again emerged.

Overall, it was a good read. And like many good books, my view and perception of the orchid will never quite be the same. I'll appreciate it much more, and wonder what craziness brought that particular flower to that particular time and space.

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I listened to this Audio CD for the wrong reasons and came out ahead

I've a weird habit of reading the books that movies are based on, just to see how they differ. I didn't like Cage & Streep's Adaptation, but the book helped me understand what the movie was really about. I.e., the screenwriter faced the hopeless task of following his instant cult classic "Being John Malkovich" with a script based on a book of minute details about orchid production and obsession. So he wrote himself into the story, placed Susan Orlean in a torrid affair with newly minted pornographer John LaRoche, and then threw LaRoche to the alligators. Such a neat way to tie up loose ends! I also didn't realize that the porno website part of the movie was a true story.

But getting back to the book, I enjoyed listening to the 5-disk audio book on its own merits. I learned that there are 80,000 varieties of orchids, plus 80,000 hybrids, and the British started the whole damn hobby. That many careers and marriages were lost to orchids. That the word orchid comes from the greek (latin?) word for testicles. That orchids take 7 years to flower from seed. That wild orchid roots wind around trees, so to steal the flowers, LaRoche cut off the tree branches they were growing around. That the Seminoles were the first tribe to build a casino on sovereign native American land. That self-confidence can be contagious.

That's about 8 more facts than I usually pick up from a book. So thank you Susan Orlean, for a great read. And I hope that screenwriter made up that stuff about your posing for LaRoche's website.

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hidden treasures - or "titillating tidbits" of history...

With all due respect to the author and her plot... I will always value my reading of this book for the other things I learned from it - the fascinating nuggets of history of the Seminoles, especially. So, thank you Ms. Orlean for expanding your article into this very enjoyable book.

Fast!

This book arrived THE NEXT DAY! Important, because my daughter had to read it for a class, and she procrastinated on the project...

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK

A modern classic of personal journalism, The Orchid Thief is Susan Orlean?s wickedly funny, elegant, and captivating tale of an amazing obsession.

From Florida?s swamps to its courtrooms, the New Yorker writer follows one deeply eccentric and oddly attractive man?s possibly criminal pursuit of an endangered flower. Determined to clone the rare ghost orchid, Polyrrhiza lindenii, John Laroche leads Orlean on an unforgettable tour of America?s strange flower-selling subculture, along with the Seminole Indians who help him and the forces of justice who fight him. In the end, Orlean?and the reader?will have more respect for underdog determination and a powerful new definition of passion.

Praise for The Orchid Thief:

?Fascinating . . . tales of theft, hatred, greed, jealousy, madness, and backstabbing . . . an engrossing journey.?
?Los Angeles Times

?Irresistible . . . a brilliantly reported account of an illicit scheme to housebreak Florida?s wild and endangered ghost orchid . . . Its central figure is John Laroche, the ?oddball ultimate? of a subculture whose members are so enthralled by orchids they ?pursue them like lovers.? ?
?Minneapolis Star Tribune

?Artful . . . in Ms. Orlean?s skillful handling, her orchid story turns out to be distinctly ?something more.? . . . [Her] portrait of her sometimes sad-making orchid thief allows the reader to discover acres of opportunity where intriguing things can be found.?
?The New York Times

?Zestful . . . a swashbuckling piece of reporting that celebrates some virtues that made America great.?
?The Wall Street Journal

?Deliciously weird . . . compelling.?
?Detroit Free Press

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