Rating: 
Summary: One of the best I've ever read
Review: I have to admit when I started the odyssey that is White Oleander I thought I would never make it. The first chapter reads like a poets dream -- not mine, mind you. Thank goodness I didn't give up. Janet Finch's novel is a breathtaking account of mother/daughter dysfunction. Finch's words maintained a sensual rhythm as they wove the tragic story of a daughter's physical abondonment and emotional entrapment by her mother who is sent to prison for murder. I felt maternal toward Astrid as she stumbled through the foster care system cheering her accomplishments, cringing at her missteps and experiencing heartache at the various levels of abuse she received by her mother, the system and her changing environments. I recommend this read to anyone looking to experience one of today's best writers tell a devestatingly beautiful story.
Rating:
Summary: White Oleander
Review: Although fairly simple in its conflicts and entirety, Janet Fitch's mesmerizing storytelling makes White Oleander an absolutely enchanting novel. White Oleander follows Astrid Magnussen, a beautiful teenaged girl whose mother is imprisoned for murder. Together you will share Astrid's struggles and triumphs as she moves from one foster home to another, searching for love but finding it in all the wrong places. At the age of 18, she emerges from the concrete jungles stronger and wiser, finally free. Truly compelling, White Oleander will help you to better understand the problems of society, and the beautiful poetic writing will take your breath away.
Rating: 
Summary: Mommie Dearest
Review: There's a famous scene in The Untouchables (borrowed, I believe, from Battleship Potemkin) where a baby stroller goes bouncing down a stairwell in the midst of a gun battle. Brian DePalma, like Sergei Eisenstein, uses our fear for the infant to heighten the tension of the scene. White Oleander is one long jouncing ride down the stairs. Astrid Magnussen is the thirteen year old daughter of Ingrid, a beautiful but demented, selfish, narcissistic, egomaniacal poetess. When Ingrid is shunned by a lover, she kills him and is imprisoned. Astrid is sent to a series of foster homes where she encounters a variety of fairly dubious maternal figures--a born again stripper, a racist living next to a prostitute, a totalitarian Mexican, a depressive actress and a tough Russian. Given the purpleness of Fitch's prose, at every stop the reader is sort of waiting for disaster to strike, for the baby to spill out of the carriage, but most of the foster homes actually turn out to be reasonably decent places. In fact, it is Astrid herself who manages to screw up almost every one of these homes, or when she doesn't, her mother does out of jealousy. Despite this sequence of disasters, she manages to emerge as a fairly likable and pulled together young woman with a healthy contempt for, but an unhealthy attraction to, her mother. I thought the book worked best as a cautionary tale about the atomization of the family. Astrid does not know her own father (in fact, men are little more than props in the book) and there is no family member to take her in when her mother is jailed. The families she is placed with are pretty dysfunctional. And, of course, Ingrid is hardly a mother, doing little more than encouraging Astrid to read dreck like Henry Miller and Anais Nin and periodically warning her not to become close to her surrogate families. The child-in-danger tension and the desperation of the broken family made the book readable. I was less impressed with Fitch's much praised prose. Like the oleander of the title, I thought it had a hothouse effect; pretty words strung together do not necessarily make for good writing. For example, here's Astrid describing her mother: The edge of her white kimono flapped open in the wind and I could see her breast, low and full. Her beauty was like the edge of a very sharp knife. Which is it? Is she full breasted or knifelike? The two are mutually exclusive. There are times when this kind of language seems to run out of control and become too cloying; luckily the episodic story usually brings it back to earth. Likewise, the novel sometimes teeters on the brink of soap opera or daytime talk show antics (the families often seem like they are drawn from episodes of Oprah or Jerry Springer) and threatens to descend into cheap melodramatics, but then the next section starts and begins a new cycle. Overall, I'd say that this was one of the better books I've read from the Oprah Book collection, despite some significant flaws. And what really saved it for me was Astrid's capacity to judge her mother quite harshly and hold her responsible for her actions. GRADE: C+
Rating:
Summary: Haunting, difficult book will not leave you when you finish
Review: This type of book is the most difficult to review. It is lyrical, with its poet-teen narrator and edgy feel. Yet it stretches your credulity to its limits as Astrid goes from one disasterous foster home to another--how many people will have that much trouble follow them before age 18? Yet Fitch manages to make you sorrow for her without resorting to pity. This alone makes it a great work. You will not forget it easily.
Rating: 
Summary: Such a chick book
Review: I'm the type of person that if the first few pages don't grab me, I'm not going to be motivated to read it. White Oleander did grab me, and with all of its poetic phrases and analogies it is the epitome of a book written for and by a female. I got bored part of the way through and had to force my way through what seemed like page-filling rambling, but was glad to come out the other side of it.
Rating:
Summary: Read all of it in one day!
Review: Kept me going and makes me see my mother and family in a new light. And it took me only 8 hours to read, could not sleep without reading it all!
Rating:
Summary: I could not put this book down...
Review: I have not read a book that captured my attention like this one since THE COLOR PURPLE. From the very first page I had a difficult time putting this book down until I finished it. I was literally holding my eyes open at 4am so that I could continue reading. The story is beautifully crafted. Fitch's use of imagery is amazing. I have one suggestion for those who have not yet read about the storyline: Don't read about it until you're at least a third of the way through the book. I didn't know anything about the storyline...had not even read the inside cover of the book...before reading the first few chapters. As a result, I was surprised by some of the events that occur early in the book. Another suggestion: Do not start this book the night before you have a project due or a presentation to give.
Rating:
Summary: I couldn't put it down!
Review: From the very first page I knew I was reading something very different than any book I'd read before. The author's style of writing, pulls you in and gives you a vivid colorful view of a very disturbing mother and her daughter. Every character that comes into the story seems so real, and you become engrossed in their situations. I was especially overwhelmed by this book when I got to the parts about Claire. I was deeply touched by this character, but also frustrated by her weaknesses. Overall I would say I loved this book and will read it again. The only part I wasn't too happy about was the ending. Therefore I am giving it 4 stars instead of 5.
Rating:
Summary: It was great!
Review: This book has so much action! It's never boring, and keeps you guessing what will happen to the heroine.
Rating: 
Summary: A truly addictive book, but lacking in substance...
Review: I really had mixed feelings about this book, but in the end the negative definitely outweighed the positive. The beginning of the novel was fantastic. Janet Fitch's use of prose and language is nothing short of marvellous. However as the novel wore on, I suddenly realized something. I didn't like Astrid one bit. Don't get me wrong, I felt terrible for everything she went through, but there was nothing about her personality that appealed to me. Astrid's mother didn't seem very believable and the relationship between both characted failed, in my humble opinion, to make any sense. The novel itself really dragged toward the end and the subject matter was so disturbing I had to put the book away for days at a time. This isn't exactly a novel you can curl up with at the end of a long day. The last chapter made no sense whatsoever. If anything, I'm sure the reason I didn't like this book is the reason why so many people loved this book. Perhaps it was too much harsh reality. I am, however, willing to give Janet Fitch another chance when she publishes another novel.
| 
