Rating: 
Summary: Poetic yet disappointing
Review: I found this book to be very beautiful, and poetically written. I believe the author put a lot of detail and work into this novel with her descriptive words. I feel that it it was an informative story of one child's life as she grew up in a cruel system. Yet, as a fosterparent I was very disappointed in the portrayal of fosterparents and the representation of the caseworkers and other individuals who are involved in caring for children while they are in fostercare. With many professions, there are individuals who should not be in the type of work they are in. Yet, for the many who devote their time, patience, heart and families to such a demanding career, it is often degrading to us as foster parents who do our utmost to help neglected, abandoned or abused children. When only negative situations are portrayed in the media, it gives society a distorted view of all foster homes and cripples our reputation as meaningful assets to the world of lost and forgotten children.
Rating:
Summary: Astrid rocks!
Review: Janet Fitch has given us a tremendously appealing character in Astrid, the heroine of White Oleander. Astrid faces the worst: first, her brilliant, yet selfish and unstable mother ends up in jail after murdering her boyfriend, then, Astrid is placed in a series of dysfunctional foster homes. Yet, Astrid is a survivor. She does the best she can in difficult circumstances and learns what she can about life and herself. With all the odds against her, Astrid comes out a winner: beautiful, funny, warm, tough, sensitive, and smart. Astrid may always be scarred, but she'll persevere. This is a great story about a resilient young woman. Read it next time you're feeling sorry for yourself, or catch yourself making excuses. Astrid is an inspiration.
Rating: 
Summary: From a former foster youth
Review: I'm a former foster youth (19 years old) and I am absolutely floored with how accurately Janet Fitch depicts the foster care experience. I've lived through 19 homes and tears came to my eyes as Janet touched experiences that struck home to me. All the homes (save Claire's) are realistic, believe me! Even with the caring Claire's home, we are given meat. We are shown the beauty of an ideal foster parent, the kind we veteran foster youth dream of.This book is exactly what American's should be reading. Too few people fathom, let alone understand, what a crisis the foster system is in today. This book not only opens the door, but it does it engagingly. Its a page turner. If you want to learn about the foster care system, and you don't like getting bored, read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Yawn
Review: I don't usually like Oprah's book picks, so if you're a rabid Oprah-phile, you can stop reading right now. You won't like what I have to say next. I thought this novel had lots of potential. Fitch creates a unique, genuine voice for Astrid, and her development as a character is well-plotted and well-drawn through the first third or so of the novel. Astrid's mother was also intriguing, and the main reason I picked this book up, despite it's being an Oprah pick. I was fascinated by the hard, brittle poet and her Viking heritage. That said, after Astrid goes into foster care, the novel becomes less a novel than a series of undeveloped vignettes. Astrid rarely seems like the same character from home to home, and while that may be part of Fitch's point, she doesn't accomplish the transitions smoothly enough to keep me interested in Astrid's fate. Her character becomes less sympathetic as the "novel" wears on: I grew increasingly frustrated with her determination not to be happy, whatever the cost. By the time she goes to live with the Russian woman and her house of garbage, I was thoroughly bored and annoyed with Astrid, and it took a lot of effort to keep reading through the end. I found this to be like most Oprah picks: a shallow, circumspect effort. Fitch has a lovely, poetic writing style that could have made this "novel" an important, riveting piece of fiction; at most, it's an easy beach read. If you want serious fiction, look elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: Great Imagery and Characters
Review: Ms. Fitch's writing style had one aspect that captured my attention ultimately...her use of exquisite description. Every character that passed through Astrid's journey through foster homes was so imaginable I could have drawn a picture of each. It was easy to recognize characters such as Marvel, Claire, and Starr in one's own life, as well, which made the tale much more thought provoking and personal. Although the transitions towards the end of the book when Astrid is struggling to either accept or reject the mother who flung her into fosterage seemed somewhat awkward, I thoroughly enjoyed the plot and characters of the book. Fair warning to those looking for a feel good story, however, Oprah's choices are rarely happy carnivals, so be prepared.
Rating:
Summary: Transforming
Review: White Oleander was a wonderful read. A twist on the coming of age theme makes this book almost destined to become a classic. The story of Astrid growing up and apart from her mother, Ingrid, is more than that. Fitch exploits the fact that she places Astrid in one foster home after another, attempting to catch nearly every negative aspect of American culture. Larger issues underlie the plot. How to deal with alcoholism, religion, beating, predjudice, suicide, starvation, teenage pregnancy, and mostly, loneliness. The average house from another perspective. White Oleander is not a heart-warming story, but it is a soul touching one. One of the best books I have read for some time.
Rating:
Summary: white wonderful
Review: The book White Oleander is a vivid descripion of life. Janet Fitch is a wonderful auther with skill that will just blow you away and give you a look at life you never thouht could exsist. The book will open your eyes and your hearts.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible!
Review: I am now reading this book for the second time and am enjoying it even more, if that's possible. The analysis of the relationship between this mother and daughter is more "real" than anything I have ever read before.
Rating:
Summary: beautifully written bk w/ well-developed plot & characters
Review: This book fascinated me from start to finish, and I just couldn't put it down. It is the story of a girl who started life in worship and awe of her mother, and spent the rest of her life trying to escape that very mindset. Ingrid, the mother, is a character I liked in some ways because she possesses all the qualities I love in a female: strength, independance, intelligence, and fun. Astrid is the daughter who struggles to find her own identity, first by imitating her mother (which is exactly what Ingrid desires the most from her daughter: a carbon-copy of herself), and later doing whatever she can to prove to herself that is *not* like her mother. In the beginning, the Imitating-Ingrid stage, everything is great. Ingrid and young Astrid live a care-free and envious life, traveling all over the world and doing, it seems, whatever they feel like doing at the moment. Astrid begins the role of her mother's sidekick early in life, constantly attending her mother's poetry readings and handling the stands where people buy her mother's books. Ingrid is open and honest with Astrid, sharing her secrets- good and bad. At the same time, however, she is depriving her daughter of things she needs the most at this precarious time: one definate place to live, one definate set of beliefs, one father figure. (As Ingrid and Astrid study mythological gods together, Ingrid tells her daughter to report to anyone who inquires about her religious believes that "we hang our gods from trees." When Astrid requests information about her father's whereabouts or why she does not know him, Ingrid tells her that girls do not need fathers and it is better off the Astrid does not have one, testifying "I had one, so I would know." This idealistic world spins smoothly until Ingrid crashes their universe by breaking all her rules. Formerly, Ingrid had used her beauty only to intimidate and manipulate men; she never went further than that. She would give advice to Astrid about men, listing rules such as Do not let men stay the night, Do not let them get cozy in your life by going to dinners and other such domestic outings with them all the time, Do not change your taste to suit theirs or to impress them, Do not give any of emotional self to them because you won't be able to get anything back. (During the book I somewhat liked these theories of Ingrid's because they sound so much like those typical of males for unnoticed generations and generations). Ingrid did not believe in love and did not want committment. However, she let her guard down with a despicable character named Barry, and when he stopped loving her, she couldn't handle it. She had always thought that a woman's self-respect was the most imporatant thing to hang on to, and she felt like she had thrown it all away in a trash can named "Barry". Unable to end her rage, frustration, and bitterness, Ingrid kills Barry (the weapon is the poisonous flower Oleander- hence the title), and is sentenced to life in prison. At first, Astrid feels guilty because her mother always shared everything with her and she had a few glimpes of the future, but did nothing to warn Barry about her mother's plans. And so begins Astrid's struggle without her mother, the only person she had ever really had. In the midst of becoming a woman herself, Astrid starts to see the side of her mother she had always missed before because of her glossed-over visions of perfection and goddess-ness. Now, she feels betrayed by her mother, and thinks that Ingrid is only a selfish person who will not be happy unless Astrid becomes exactly what she is. As Astrid moves from foster home to foster home, she meets so many different people- people she has never before been able to come in close contact with, because that would entail leaving her mother's side- and she realizes that maybe her mother's way isn't flawless. Throughout the book, Astrid must deal with her feelings of rejection, imperfection, guilt, and lonliness, and getting past all these barriers utlimately leads her to hold a satisfying self-concept of herself. ALthough the story's ending was surprisingly unrealistic, I was still able to share in Astrid's triumphs as well as her failures. By realizing that her mother loves her for who she is, and finding out exactly what that is, Astrid forms her own identity and individuality. Learning to forgive all the pains which so many people have inflicted her with and getting past the tendency to want to be like whoever she is closest to at the moment make her a stronger person. Three cheers for Fitch's first novel, and I hope to be seeing more titles by her soon! Her book rocks by forging a mixture of the female perspective on life (it somehow manages to "subtly glow" with the girl-power message), and humanity-in-general's view. It is filled with triumph and failure, despair and hope, humor and sorrow, and- the book's most powerful message of all- insecurity and self-respect. Fitch successfully weaves these paradoxical traits into one story which will make you want to read it fast and savor it slowly. Yummy... this was one delicious summer read.
Rating:
Summary: Could not put it down!
Review: This is one of most riveting works of fiction I've read in years! Even cold, distant, absent, self-absorbed mothers continue to exert their influence no matter how hard we try to tune them out. The fact that Astrid isn't a sociopath herself is a miracle. I couldn't get enough of it.
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