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Summary: no story, no plot, no drama...just long-winded verbiage
Review: i read this book expecting some kind of genuine narrative or story -- but instead i kept confronting long passages of exposition that seemed designed to draw attention only to the writer and her stylish prose. this read like an overblown magazine piece.
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Summary: Brilliant, funny, sad, and wondrous.
Review: A brilliant and funny excursion through a wondrous jumble of oddballs and seekers. Breathtaking writing about Florida's landscape, especially the dank, fetid Fakahatchee swamp. Like Joseph Mitchell and McPhee, Orlean's writing about lives built around obsessions is often funny, though never cruel or demeaning, and always deepened with the mournful recognition of human frailty.
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Summary: up-side down photograph
Review: I have been growing orchids for many years, and it bothers me that the photograph on the cover of a phalenopsis flower is up-side down. Was this done on purpose or is it an error? I have a feeling it is an error which is unfortunate because it spoils the cover.
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Summary: THE ORCHID THIEF is an adventure worth taking.
Review: THE ORCHID THIEF is a venture into the murky terrain and temperament of those obsessed with orchids. This descriptive account treks into the habitat of these botanical beauties. Where the humidity is beyond hot and sticky. It is "hot and gummy". Where the vegetation is "dense as steel wool". Where all your senses feel like they are "plugged into a light socket". Not since, Bogart and Hepburn trudged through the muck dragging The African Queen has suspense slithered and oozed with each cautious footstep. With clarity THE ORCHID THIEF's author illuminates the shady deals and exposes the ethics and values which accompany an obsession. The African Queen may have had Bogart and Hepburn, but THE ORCHID THIEF has Orlean and Laroche.
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Summary: My adventures in Orchid-land
Review: Four years ago, I heard about a case in Florida of an eccentric nursery owner who had been arrested, along with three Seminole assistants, with four bags of endangered plants they had removed from a swamp near Naples.I couldn't imagine why anyone would poach orchids, and I couldn't imagine how this peculiar guy had hooked up with the Seminole tribe, and once I heard about his plan -- to clone the orchids and flood the world market with them -- I knew I had to find out more.I wrote a piece about the trial for The New Yorker, but once I finished I knew that I wanted to go back to Florida and keep penetrating the story.I'm not an orchid lover; I came to the story with no vested interest; I just found the people, the setting, the history, and especially the emotions behind it irresistible.Certainly this is a singular tale, but the momentum was all very familiar -- the desire to believe in something, to make your life exceptional in some way, the yearning for a way to make your existence make sense, and of course the incredible seduction of beauty. I hope orchid lovers read the book, but I really wrote it for all readers, plant lovers or not, who like to examine American culture in unexpected ways. Jonathan Demme, the director of Silence of the Lambs and Beloved, has optioned the book and has a screenwriter working on an adaptation right now; I'm curious to see who will portray my protagonist, the passionate and obsessive and shrewd and peculiar John Laroche.
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Summary: A perfect little book
Review: This book is fascinating; I stayed up all night to read it because I couldn't put it down. The fact is, people go nuts for orchids, and they say and do hilarious things in the pursuit of them. And they *will* pursue them, by whatever means necessary, and yet they will never have enough of them. Sort of like ... the human condition. I can't say enough about this book. I loved it.
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Summary: brilliant, funny, original non-fiction
Review: i've never read a book quite like this: at the center is a very specific event (an orchid poaching) but then the book radiates outward, looking at the people, the place, and the history that the orchid poaching touches. i have no affection for orchids, but this book was so much more than that. it's a kind of american epic, and a great read at the same time.
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Summary: flowery language isn't enough to keep this from wilting
Review: i found this book to be dull and pointless. orlean's writing style isn't enough to save this book from its essentially superficial quality.
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Summary: where passion meets beauty
Review: I approached this book thinking, "orchids....what could I possibly care about orchids?" But, was I ever in for a surprise, because Orlean had me hooked on her subject and her characters by page 2. This book does what all great books do: it lures you into its world, holds you there and doesn't let you go until long after you've read the final page. This is a stunningly original work by a writer of extraordinary talent and enthusiasm for her subject. Like the flowers she writes about, "The Orchid Thief" is a rare and brilliantly exotic thing that will be loved and admired by all who encounter it.
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Summary: Passion turned obsession
Review: I first saw the movie 'Adaptation': a film adaptation of the book 'The Orchid Thief.' The movie became, before the end, myopic in that hollwood-filming-itself way that only large budget films with too many contributors can manage. It boils down to who will win in controlling the story: the subject of the book (Laroche), the writer of the book (Orlean), or the screenwriter (played by Nicolas Cage). To make a long story short, the movie was so-so but the orchid descriptions and photos made my wife and I gasp in astonishment. Also, the Laroche character was compelling in an unexplainable way.So I decided to read the book. The book is non-fiction and thankfully has little to do with the strange plot of the movie. Even if you don't normally read non-fiction, however, you'll like this one as the author uses that fluid, conversational, New Yorker style that pulls you in and delivers interesting anecdotes at just the right times. If you like Updike's writing, you'll enjoy that of Orlean. The book centers, above all, on the fine line between passion and obsession. This dangerous transition is personified in real-world orchid figure Laroche of south Florida. While innocuously building a nursery business with his wife, he finds success and outlet for his passion for plants. But as disaster besets him (fatal car crash, hurricane, divorce, financial woes, legal trouble), we start to see what really makes him tick. He is a survivor, a quick thinker, a schemer, a dreamer and, unlike most of us, a just-do-it person. Throughout his life he has a knack for focusing on something, quickly becoming an expert at it, and transforming that passion into a vocation. Orchids, however, pull him into the land of obsession. We can see this by comparing Laroche with a spectrum of figures in the book who observe orchids with varying degrees of appreciation, lust, envy, wonder, nurture, exploitation, conservation and commercialization. Along the way we learn about the history of orchids in the Western culture, their natural habitats from the cloud forests of South America to the hot, humid jungles of southeast Asia. The author tells us how difficult it is to grow orchids from seed, but how emotionally and financially rewarding it can be to design your own orchid hybrid. Finally, we are told that orchids are immortal, with many plants alive for several human generations, being passed on with reverence, and are still going strong today. This book contains much, well-researched information on orchids, orchid hunters, orchid growers, and orchid shows and societies but it is, most of all, an illustration of the phenomenon of human passion and obsession: the distinction being that passion is motivating and guiding whereas obsession is reckless and self-destructive. In obsession, the thing outside becomes more valuable than the self-image, and crazy actions are espoused. Hence Larouche's scheme to build an orchid lab on Native American soil, use their legal exemptions to collect wild ghost orchids from otherwise protected state preserves, and aim to be the first to clone and grow in quantity the extremely rare ghost orchid. Laroche, missing a few front teeth and uttering phrases mixing plant names (in latin) with profanity embodies, in one man, the interesting mix of high culture and low intrigue that seem married to the international trade of orchids. Thankfully the book goes deep into the man Larouche, of his motivations and excesses, of his passions and interior wounds. This man, who is also the most compelling portion of the film adaptation of the book, is carefully plumbed in this non-fiction work. The result of all this, for the reader, is a great appreciation for the evolutionary success of orchids, the importance of preserving them, shock at what people will do to acquire them, and perhaps a better understanding of why some people pursue things to their destruction while others can play in the same space, with wholesome enjoyment, forever. I should warn you that, after the movie and the book, my curiousity of orchids led me to read five or six non-fiction, how-to books on orchid cultivation. I can report, based upon those other works, that the research in 'The Orchid Thief' is very good. There are little inaccuracies, mainly with regards to the claim that orchids have no natural enemies. A more correct statement is that they have not many natural enemies. However, I'm learning from my local orchid group, they still suffer from things like fungal rot, red spider mites and orchid viruses that can attack them. So while they don't seem to senesce or kill themselves through aging (they probably don't need to, since they reproduce so infrequently) they can in fact die of from these competitors, pests, and diseases. So, yes, I'm growing an orchid plant now and have my eyes on a few others. Let's hope I keep my interest in the realm of passion, and avoid all the extremes of obsession highlighted in 'The Orchid Thief.' And wherever Larouche is now, my hat's off to you for your courage, ingenuity, resourcefulness, wit, charm, and--most of all--your passion!
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