The Orchid Thief

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful, absorbing book; not just for orchid fanciers
Review: With every chapter, I became more engrossed in this complex story. Ms. Orlean surprised me with many details and descriptions that helped me relive my early years spent in Florida. I was able to find many passages that made me say, 'yes, that's what I enjoy about Florida' -- or, 'Oh, yes, I remember the intense sky and sun and heat!' I think I understand my cousin's enthusiasm for the orchids he raises. I thoroughly enjoyed her style and subject matter. I can hardly wait for my friends to read it! I'll put this book on my read-again list.

Rating:
Summary: Fear and Loathing of Orchid Shows
Review: More of an exercise in method writing than a piece of art itself, the Orchid Thief floats down a narrative river through swamps, orchid shows, Seminole history, endangered species laws until the reader is entirely swept up in the current. Susan Orlean's voice is always present yet strangely invisible to others in this oddball world of orchid fanatics, and the reader is often left wondering how she found herself in the thick of such an insular, claustrophobic culture. Towards the end, past all the engrossing anecdotes, witty style, and wistful observations, the reader feels complicit in a game of chicken with Orlean -- will you stop reading before she stops writing and exploring? Can you stop reading?

Like an impressionist painting, the style overwhelms the subject to achieve a transcendental effect upon the nature of journalism.

Rating:
Summary: Engaging but sloppy and lazy
Review: The problem with the book is that Orlean remains immune to orchids. She gives away the plants people give her. Other than P. lindenii, she never names the plants that the people in the book grow, breed, sell, exhibit, judge, smuggle or steal. Although she observes that Robert Fuchs won "all the major awards" at a Miami Orchid Show she neglects to date (it was 1996), she apparently stood in front of his exhibit without noticing the Bulbophyllum giganteum that filled the space; and she walked through his commercial display in Homestead without being transported by the light and air. Her story reads like a travelogue seen from a bus. She reports the amusing and amazing but neglects the detail and insight that interest informed readers.

Rating:
Summary: Charmingly written and intellectually shallow
Review: In her travels through the south of Florida, Susan Orlean sought out all the players in the orchid-collecting community. There was Henry Azadehdel, an Armenian plant fanatic and UFO scholar; Lee Moore the Adventurer, a former pre-Columbian art collector and smuggler, an anarchist and pot smoker; and Frank Smith, a successful connoisseur accused of stealing orchids from Bob Fuchs' award-winning collection. "I still considered Laroche and his schemes exceptional," Orlean explained, "But he had started to seem more like the endpoint in a continuum." The most entertaining parts of the book are when Orlean untangles the various feuds and historical quirks of the orchid world, making obscure connections and establishing ancient relationships, providing a wonderfully lucid picture of an elaborate social group.

Occasionally, Orlean employs rhetorical tricks or poetic flights of fancy, but for the most part, she retains a nonchalant deadpan. She writes unostentatious, factual prose that lets the ridiculousness of her subjects speak for themselves; showing great restraint, she never pauses to exclaim, "Can you believe these people?" The book lags only when she breaks with her light, breezy tone to philosophize about the American identity or about the lack of passion among young people; and some of her musings-like her point that Florida is a bold frontier, "as suggestible as someone under hypnosis"-are just bizarre. These analytic cameos are not her specialty and they seem needlessly tacked on. The strength of the book is the clarity of its storytelling and the author's witty, even-tempered voice.

Rating:
Summary: If you like a fast-paced, sensational narrative you will fin
Review: Book Review The Orchid Thief Susan Orlean Random House 1998 ISBN0-679-44739-3 $25.00

Please keep in mind the title and subject of this book as you read this review. The Orchid Thief 's subject is John Laroche, who was arrested and convicted of stealing native Florida orchids from the Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve several years ago under the guise of working for the Seminole Indians.

The entire tone for the book is set by the cover illustration - an upside down Phalenopsis, and the title page of stylized Cymbidiums (?) and Cattleyas(?) - neither of which appear to be species and most certainly are not native to North America, let alone the Fakahatchee! This lack of attention to detail and concern for accuracy pervades the entire book. Although Ms. Orleans narrative is fascinating reading, she was sorely taken in by many of the people she interviewed and therefore comes up with some really unbelievable stories. In addition only about 25% of the book is about the title subject - the remainder is an indictment of the orchid community of south Florida. But that is not the concern of my review.

I am concerned with the scientific accuracy in dealing with the orchids and, more so, the intense maligning of the spectacular Fakahatchee Strand area. From the very beginning of misstating the number of species in the Orchidaceae as 60,000(!) - when in fact it is more closely 30,000, to her to misconception of what species are and how they relate to the entire hybrid scheme, Ms. Orlean totally lacks the basic botanical research for this book. And it is a book that purports to be about an intense botanical subject.

From the very basic of botanical etiquette that one does not name a new species after one's self - a new species is described not named; and the fact that the author of the species then chooses what or whom to name it after, to her lack of real experience in the Fakahatchee, which she describes as 'green hell'- primarily because she spent a bare minimum of time and saw next to nothing as she was 'taken for a ride' in the swamp goes to prove the lack of substantial research. Those of use who know the Fakahatchee know it to be just the opposite - an absolute paradise with an unending number of exciting and beautiful species. You may get a little hot or wet, but that is no price to pay for the result of a day in the swamp. It is unfortunate that Ms. Orlean felt the only flower of any beauty in the swamp was the elusive ghost orchid (Polyradicion lindenii) - even though she never did see one in flower. Had she spent more time in research she would have known that there are dozens of equally as beautiful orchids species and other flowers well distributed throughout the swamp. Her statistics for species of orchids and those, which are either restricted or endemic in the swamp, are totally off base. There are really on three species that have been found only in the Fakahatchee - Bulbophyllum pachyrhizum, Maxillaria parviflora and Epidendrum blancheanum. All others may be very restricted in their distribution or presently only known from the Fakahatchee, but they have been recorded from outside of the swamp over the past 100 or so years of botanical exploration in south Florida.

Perhaps the greatest injustice in the book is in the acknowledgments where Ms. Orlean credits the American Orchid Society for checking botanical accuracy - something she so obviously did not choose to use within the final text. If you like a fast-paced, sensational narrative you will find this book fascinating but do not expecting an accurate story about the Fakahatchee and it myriad of exciting orchids.

Paul Martin Brown Editor, North American Native Orchid Journal PO Box 772121 Ocala, FL 34477-2121 e-mail: [e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: Orchid Thief an entertaining, padded version on NY article
Review: I just finished reading the book, and I thought it was a 7.8 on a scale of 10. It was an expanded (really padded) version of her New Yorker article. The expansion consisted mostly of chapters devoted to various aspects of orchid collecting and cultivating history (well told).

The characterization of Florida is very nice, and she describes people well.

On the other hand, the orchid information is pretty familiar stuff, and can get repetitious (how many times do I need to be told that it

takes seven years from seed to flower -- a questionable generalization at that). The biology is specious (she has roots and shoots "evolving" from protocorms rather than developing from them). She also characterizes Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace as colleagues -- an overstatement of the case I think, despite Darwin's gracious and much-deserved sharing of credit with Wallace in his presentations to the Royal Society.

The book dust jacket has been bashed for its largely non-resupinate phalaenopsis flower, but it looks to me like a fallen bloom on fabric, so I think that's okay.

Pretty good read and, hey, it's about our favorite plants!

Rating:
Summary: a true glimpse at the exotic,neurotic,world orchid fans
Review: Being an orchid addict,who has also made numerous trips into the Fakahatchee,I was thrilled to discover that this was such a livid and accurate portrayal of the world of orchid collectors and what evolves around them.Stunningly descriptive,you feel you're with Susan every step of the way on her journey.A must read for orchid people,or anyone who enjoys a good,true adventure.

Rating:
Summary: Soulda been call "Time Thief" cause that's what it does...
Review: Waste your time... If you would like a humorous and interesting account of the Orchid industry, wait for another book. This one lacked story, humor, plot and drama.

Rating:
Summary: History of orchids and the Fakahatche Strand State Preserve.
Review: This books tells a story, and gives you three history lessons. The subjects covered include orchids, Florida wilderness (its loss), and the Seminole Nation. All in all, an enjoyable book.

Rating:
Summary: More Rave Reviews for THE ORCHID THIEF
Review: "Orlean is a beautiful writer, and her story is compelling even for those whose knowledge of orchids is limited to the long-ago prom corsage. THE ORCHID THIEF is a lesson in the dark, dangerous, sometimes hilarious nature of obsession--any obsession. You sometimes don't want to read on, but find you can't help it." --Anita Manning, USA Today

"If you liked MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL, this new non-fiction work by Susan Orlean will hold you utterly spellbound." --Glamour

"The landscapes of John Laroche and the state of Florida elicit some of Susan Orlean's best writing...her ear for self-skewing dialogue, her eye for the incongruous, convincing detail, and her Didion-like deftness in description...Such rapturous evocations are reason enough to read Orlean's book." --Dean Crawford, The Boston Globe

"The portraits are finely drawn and certainly a pleasure to read." --Vanessa V. Friedman, Entertainment Weekly

"Orlean's hilariously reported, discursive narrative wanders off into Seminole history, real-estate fraud, stolen flora, and the scary, swampy Fakahatchee Strand. Just when you fear you're lost in the Everglades, she returns to the flower at hand, and unleashes some delirious prose....Orlean shows great restraint and never adopts and orchid--readers might not manage to be so cold-blooded." --Alexandra Lange, New York Magazine