Rating: 
Summary: White Oleander
Review: I wasn't exactly looking forward to reading this at first. I went to the bookstore to buy something else, but I'm thrilled that they were sold out of the other book. This is the most beautiful piece of fiction I have read in a long time. The character Astrid is so real, so raw. The way she changes, the way her emotions swing, and the pure artistry of her voice is amazing. Each charcter has a distinct voice, which is rare for modern day writers to pull off. Also, Astrid's blossoming through her sexual experiences, pains, love and observance of human nature is gripping and touching. I loved everything about this book, the vivid descriptions and the painful beauty in everything. A must read for men and women alike.
Rating: 
Summary: Gripping Story-wonderful prose
Review: This book is so well written and crafted. The analagies and phrasing are so wonderfully done. Some of the subject matter is not very pretty, but the language explores it and paints it so vividly that you can't help but get caught up in it.The characters are so real you feel you know them.Some you'll like and some you'll despise, but you will understand them and you will see what an impact people have on each other. The resiliancy of a child's spirit will amaze and encourage you. Your eyes will be opened to a darker side of our society in an unforgetable way!
Rating:
Summary: A book to be cherished
Review: Every once in a while a book comes along that makes me want to stop, slow down, and savor every word because of the artistry of the sentences. This is one of those books. Yes, the plotline is gripping, yes the tale of a young girl growing up in harsh circumstances is poignant and enchanting, yes, the enigmatic and stark mother is drawn powerfully. But what really sets this book apart is the way the author carefully crafted each sentence to make a richly textured novel that proves prose can be poetry. This book is one that's destined to be on college syllabi. It successfully marries a suspenseful plot with insightful character development and exquisite prose. I started to listen to this book on tape, but found myself rewinding so often to listen to the stunning language again, that I gave up on the tape and got the book. Treat yourself to something truly lovely - read White Oleander.
Rating:
Summary: White Oleander Review by Jessica Adamich
Review: White Oleander is a tale about a teenaged girls struggle of self-discovery. Astrid Magnussen had lived in her mothers shadow her entire life, and had grown to love her mothers' odd views of the world. As a single mother, Ingrid raised her the best she could and taught Astrid the unexplainable. When Astrid hit 12, her mother was arrested for the murder of her ex-boyfriend, and thus begins the incredible journey of Astrid's individual growth. Without a father or anyone to turn to, Astrid was placed in her first of six foster care homes, and was adopted from one dysfunctional family to the next. Only Claire Richards offers Astrid the life she always dreamed of, and supports Astrids artistic and academic abilities. But all good things must come to an end for poor Astrid, and her possessive mother keeps jealous watch over Astrid by letter, and manipulates the situation. While Astrid has tried to move on from her loss of Claire, she enters her last foster home run by a Russian Immigrant houseing a huge variety of ethnic girls, her mother is working on shortening her life sentence. Ingrid has become a feminist and popular public figure through jail, forming powerful tactics by educating naive young disciples and connects with media crazed lawyer working to get her a new trial. Astrid, slightly amazed that her mother has made so much progress, wants no part in her mothers fight for freedom, and instead stands up to her at a jail visit demanding regret of her mothers choices in ruining Astrid life. Throughout the book you can see how Astrid has developed an immense inner strength and has made her own life without needing her mother for air.
Rating:
Summary: An Odyssey
Review: White Oleander is the story of a young girl's Odyssian journey undertaken not by choice but by necessity. It is a coming of age novel but it's not your average story. Astrid finds herself in extraordinary cirmcumstances. She's extraordinary looking with an extraordinary mother and extraordinary background. It is this larger than life depiction, told in first person, that draws us in and keeps us glued to the story. For every journey, at least those that make sense, there is a quest or a goal, something for which to strive or reach. What is Astrid's quest? Survival for one. We find, however, a more important intrinsic goal throughout Astrid's struggles from one foster home to another. This goal is to find her mother. Not her flesh and blood biological mother who is locked away in prison but the Great Mother within, the archetypal mother who oftentimes does not appear unless we've undergone some psychological crisis- a difficult childhood, a broken marriage, mid-life misgivings and wanderlust. Some say those who are NOT of the cheerleader homecoming queen variety are the luckiest since they're the ones who've had to deal with pain and hurt and disappointment. They're the ones who've had to call on their inner parents and their inner reserves of strength, making them all the more resilient to life's let downs in later years. It's the ones who've had perfect lives who aren't so lucky. Ultimately they will need an inner voice but they've had no opportunity to develop that authority. Astrid does not belong to this latter group. She was no cheerleader...no homecoming queen save for her pink pumps. In her odyssey, she's garnered strength from myriad women and men who seem to have more negative weaknesses than positive attributes. Yet, Astrid is able to see through their lackluster and find something beautiful and worthy in each of her foster parents. Throughout each painful trial, from one home to the next, Astrid thrives on her associations with these new and awful characters. She is able to take the horrible and turn it into a positive quality. The weakness becomes a strength. The greed becomes practicality. Most importantly, the pain which she endures actually allows her to thrive, and this ache and longing, physical and emotional, become her art. Ultimately, this reader is left wondering... since Astrid was able to provide the pain an outlet within the context of her artistic life and creative genius, did this pain and ache find its way into other aspects of her existence? This is the question we all must face, artist or not. Are there places for our pain so that we may deal with it accordingly, so it doesn't become us, so that we don't identify with it in every aspect of our lives?
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful journy of a strong girl
Review: This book was given to me by my english teacher my senior year. I love it. It is a riviting story of a girl who has to deal with so many hardships, through it all she tries to keep her head above water. She thinks everything through and has an understanding of the way life works and of the people who live in it.
Rating:
Summary: A novel that explores the soul of every misplaced child.
Review: As I traveled along with Astrid, the teenage main character, I felt her emotions carry me into a world that should not, but most assuredly does, exist. This is the world of the misplaced child, the child who, for all intents and purposes, should fit in everywhere, should have a life with a promise of a future and security in love. Astrid does not have this, and as she grows from a young, fatherless girl whose mother gets a life in prison sentence, into a young woman making her own way in the world, she learns to be cold, and distant. Her beautiful, intense spirit becomes solid as ice eventually, and instead of growing in a world laced with acceptance, Astrid grows up and learns how to never attach, to never belong, to never feel permanence. It's a very sad story, and so well written that it evokes feelings you thought you had forgotten. I rooted for Astrid the entire story, and I related to her experiences as though they were my own. I admire her hard earned strength, and only wish these things did not really happen, but they do. Buy this book immediately, or borrow it - it is truly extraordinary.
Rating:
Summary: I enjoyed it, however....
Review: Like many of Oprah's novels, which is not discrediting her taste or the taste of so many who throughly enjoy them, I find her choices are frequently lacking a beauty I guess I require in a novel. They seem very surface, and whilst I would be lying should I say that I was not initally captivated by the novel, by it's conclusion I felt that it was becoming more the same. It started fabulously, and the characters are so brilliantly developed, but I felt a undeniable rush of tedium toward the end, as though the author had no other ideas but to pass a girl on from one hardship to another, and another and another, with miraculously, a positive conclusion, much like 'Where the Heart is', another of Oprah's fine selections. To me, the book seemed to follow a very set pattern, girl faces millions of difficulties making her a stronger harder person, only to find something in the end. I do think however, this book is ultimately a very interesting read, not revolutionary, but interesting enough to read. Perhaps not to reread. The characters were amusing and interesting, as well as developed, and the writing in many places was nicely done.
Rating:
Summary: Eye Opening
Review: After reading this book, I now can truly say I understand the horrors a child in the foster care system go through. Astrid is shot at, turned into a servant, starved and with a little or no hope for her future. This book was a real page turner and I would highly recommend reading it to all.
Rating:
Summary: Touching story
Review: I really enjoyed this book. So many people pay little attention to the impact their behavior has on the children they are responsible for raising. So many children are searching for love, for belonging, for a sense of purpose. As a single mother of two adolescent children, not much older than Astrid, I came away from this book with a renewed sense of the overwhelming responsibility I have as a parent. I hug "my babies" a little more often now. While there were many disturbing aspects to this book, such as the promiscuous mother, the sexual predators Astrid encountered, the violence she witnessed and fell victim to, the emotional neglect, etc., the most disturbing thing by far was recognizing that this was not pure fiction - there are many children who live similar lives, many children who endure that kind of tragedy every day. I don't think the book would have had the same impact on me if the author had spared those details. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who has the awesome responsibility of turning beautiful young children into happy, healthy, responsible adults of the future.
|
