Rating: 
Summary: A good book, but a lousy audio edition
Review: I enjoyed the content of this book, but I was listening to the unabridged audio version, and the reader was just awful; she read the book like an annoying children's story, it made it hard to even get even get through the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Fun
Review: I liked the movie and this book is great fun. It is sort of funny and the descriptions and text are nice and pleasurable to read. It is mostly about the authors thoughts but it is just a really quirky and nice book to read. Great descriptions and bit of the beaten track.
Rating:
Summary: A FASTINATING READ
Review: It really does not matter if you are into flowers or not, this was simply a good read. Absolutely stuffed with facts, well written and fastinating. The silly movie they made from the books was enjoyable, I liked it, but as is usaully the case, the book is so much better. Be careful though..this is not a novel, a mistake I think several reviewers made. The story, I feel, is as much about the author as anything. I liked that. It is a quirky book, written by a quirky author and it works. I very much recommend it and very much enjoyed it's reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Read it for its originality and its message (4.5 stars)
Review: Having just completed this book, I feel somewhat puzzled. First off, it seems a very odd choice for a film. Second, it is odd how different this book is from the film 'Adaptation' (although the second may explain the first to some extent). But what puzzles me most, quite frankly, is why I found this book as readable as I did. While it is very well written, I'm certainly not a flower person, and this book frankly does not have much of a plot or even attempt to generate drama concerning the 'thief's' court case. So why is it so likeable?First off, it is a unique genre, described in the appendices/supplements as 'literary non-fiction.' This rings true to me, although I wouldn't have phrased it quite that way. The story is not told in a linear, chronological fashion. We are not given an objective and detached narrator. Rather, we bounce from topic to topic, and because the narrator is subjective and involved, I found the book involving. Bouncing tangentially from topic to topic ultimately yields a lot of information. I felt I learned just enough about the evolutionary history of orchids, as well as the history of orchid collection; a chapter or two on each was just right. Other interesting side stories included the current and historical plights of southeastern Indians and of Florida itself. In many ways it is the latter that centers this novel. Florida is described as a richly diverse and impenetrable wilderness, a land of stark contrasts. Orlean takes the pat cliché of 'the melting pot' a step further, comparing Florida to a "cauldron of ...stew." The point seems to be that as our homogenized culture expands, the world is paradoxically in some ways becoming bigger and more complex. Hence new frontiers have opened in the old story of the American struggle for an individuality nestled in a broader sense of community. These new frontier subcultures she encounters in South Florida provide the bridge to the two person character study that defines this book (as much as anything else defines it). She is fascinated by how Laroche can build an entire world out of something like orchid collection, only to leave it completely as he embarks on his next obsession. She sees his pursuit as a quest for meaning and optimism in a world of 'petty cynicism', even if it means 'living for a myth.' She also describes Laroche in the appendix as one "in need of attention", who must "succeed in an unusual way." As one prone to escaping in such obsessions myself, I agree with much of her explanation. Ironically, she seems closest to really understanding in the book's climax, when she decides that (rather than becoming lost in the swamp) she prefers to depart without seeking her ghost orchid. If she does not see it, it can remain something of myth, something which "will never disappoint." Yet Laroche's own experience seems to suggest that totally giving in to one's obsession is the only way to ultimately escape it. Perhaps she is the real romantic, the truly uncompromising one. While she admits that as a 'parasitic' reporter she like Laroche dumps one fancy as she departs to another, she seems not to recognize that by going back to the swamp it is Laroche, not her, who is showing an ability to change by (for a change) taking account of his past.
Rating:
Summary: Diagnosis: Orchid Fever
Review: What a fascinating read! I was so impressed how Orlean undertook this research--all of the interest stemming from a small blip in the paper about Laroche. I particularly enjoyed the historical parts about the orchid hunters in the 18th and 19th century when the British Orchid Craze began. Her descriptions of Florida as the "last wild frontier" in the USA were quite interesting because I have never seen the state in such a way. Wonderfully intriguing and an absolute delight to read!
Rating:
Summary: You will appreciate her well-crafted descriptions
Review: Many readers will come to this book after seeing the movie "Adaptation." I include myself in that group. As I read the book, I admit that I did judge it against my experience with the movie. Its important to acknowledge how much the book differs from the movie "Adaptation." There is less Laroche and a lot more background. Most importantly, Susan Orlean's abilities as a writer, while lauded in the movie, shine all the more in this story. I finished this book because of her writing. I also admit that I considered not finishing the book, as I wanted to read more about Laroche and less about great Victorian era Orchid hunting explorations. Susan Orlean's fills this book with acres of exploration of the currents within both the mind of John Laroche as well as the state of Florida. The world of Florida orchid growers, the history of the exploration of wild orchids, the process of growing hybrids, the application of scent and color to modern society, the crazy anecdotes of living in a place as fertile and wild as Florida...these are only some of the hallways that the book travels down. Sometimes I wondered if she had any material that was collected but edited out of the final product. I am glad that I hung around long enough to seize on her writing. I wish that there was more Laroche, but the best part of the book remains Orlean's craft at description. She writes with the spirit of a child that comes in from playing and has too many things to say and can't wait long enough to catch her breath first. Consider the following sentence, in which Orlean tries to paint a picture of the atmosphere in an Indian casino at midnight: "The waiters and the waitresses and the poker dealers and the bingo callers and the valet parkers and the casino cashiers were all white people, all with flourescent-tinted skin and stiff hairdos, and all the customers were white and some had tourist tans and bloodshot eyes, and even though the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Seminole tribe's annual powwow was being celebrated only a few yards away and the chief of the Seminole tribe was peering down on every single table of Texas Hold-Em and 7-Card Stud, you felt nothing of that world at all in here -- you felt only the fever and focus of the games and the hard heat of people wanting to win." This passage shows how Orlean brings her descriptive talents to bear not just on places but on the spirits within people. "Adaptation" brings out her description of Laroche, but the book offers more into other topics. I would particularly suggest this book to people who live in Florida.
Rating:
Summary: Flowers for the lady
Review: The Dutch once endured a consuming mania for tulips. Intense competition for bulbs led to bankruptcies resulting from wild speculations, families were disrupted, and fortunes were won and lost. While "tulipmania" subsided, a new mania has arisen. More sedate yet more widespread, orchid collecting is a multimillion dollar business. Orlean portrays the passions involved in orchid collection and breeding in this fascinating work. Unlike tulips, which are limited in species, orchids encompass thousands, with the number of natural species likely doubled by breeder hybridization. Orlean's account depicts the history and business of orchid collecting, identifying and commercialisation. Orchidmania today is only slightly less intense than that of the 17th Century Dutch Republic. Orlean shows that collectors and breeders are highly competitive, aggressive, personalities, ready to engage in whatever is deemed necessary to achieve their goals. Orlean's fascination with orchids began with the arrest and trial of John Laroche, collector, blackmarketeer and general eccentric. Laroche becomes her pivot point for relating the history of orchid growing and collecting in Florida. She takes us along on her visits to breeders and collectors. She pursues them into Florida swamps and to orchid shows. Everywhere she explores and everyone she meets evokes the same feelings - vigorous competition, unbridled ambition, deep suspicion and a continual skirting with the law. Through all her encounters, Laroche hovers like a malign spirit, sometimes guiding her, sometimes taunting her. She seems captivated by him, his eccentricities simultaneously attracting and repelling her. This highly personalised account is a compelling read, with Orlean's feelings candidly expressed. The persistence of Laroche becomes, finally, almost tedious. The fascinating history of the orchid industry and the other figures she encounters might easily have displaced him as the central character. His erratic life, with swift changes from one interest to another, might interest a psychologist. Here, LaRoche almost becomes a non sequitor. He might have been dispensed with in a chapter. Orlean, almost unwillingly, remains bound to follow his fate, to whatever end. Her attentions meet indifferent response. They're nearly unrequited. Still, he manages to lead her through the swamps in her new-found quest to locate a particular orchid in the wild. It's not a pleasant journey, but one which she recounts in vivid prose. Some readers will know this book was the subject of the film, "Adaptation". The film is the story of the story and, in many respects, is a better portrayal than Orlean achieves. There is far too much well-presented information here lacking in the film. That redeems whatever faults Orlean may exhibit in this account. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
Rating:
Summary: Get Orchidelirium from Orlean
Review: I went into this book with the only information I had about orchids being what I had gleaned from reading Nero Wolfe mysteries. (Wolfe is a portly detective who keeps thousand of the flowers in a greenhouse on the roof of his brownstone.) In addition, the main reason I read the book in the first place was--like most people my age--because I really enjoyed the movie Adaptation, which, for the unfamiliar, is a comedic film about screenwriter Charlie Kaufman's attempt to translate The Orchid Thief into cinematic form. But a couple of things prepared me for what I was getting myself into. First, Adaptation does a good job of introducing the audience to the characters of Susan Orlean and John Laroche before it takes them in an entirely different direction in the last third. And second, my own bibliophilic tendencies well-prepared me for the orchid obsession described within the book's pages. "John Laroche is a tall guy, skinny as a stick, pale-eyed, slouch-shouldered, and sharply handsome, in spite of the fact that he is missing all his front teeth." The first line of the book is one of those that could easily become a classic--a first line that, at the very least, will be included in one of those quizzes of first lines. It instantly describes the character 1 and puts you in a place where you are instantly familiar with him. (It is a testament to the moviemakers that they chose Chris Cooper for this role, who, like Laroche, is handsome--and became a sex symbol as a result of Adaptation--in spite of appearing in the film with no front teeth.) (This keeps turning into the film review I thought I wasn't going to write, but I think I'll just go with it and see how it turns out. It does make sense that I would notice similarities and differences in the film and book, so we'll just see what happens.) Orlean's prose is conversational and introspective. Like the film (there I go again!), the writer is really the main character here. She tells the story, and how the orchid obsession surrounding her affected her (for one thing, it made her fear contact with the flowers lest she become obsessed), and there are scenes where Laroche is not present, but never one where Orlean isn't. In the end, I was fascinated by Laroche, but I remained distant, as I was simply being told what things about him Orlean wanted me to know. However, Susan Orlean herself came through as a fully-realized character, with all her prejudices and motives intact. The Orchid Thief is a quick read and I enjoyed every page. My only complaint is with the ending. Kaufman calls the book "sprawling New Yorker-type stuff" and it resembles that magazine's fiction choices in the infamous manner of them not having endings. The book simply stops. I was being carried along--and didn't notice how close I was to the end due to the Reading Group guide in the back--and then I felt dropped as Orlean ends her book without even having finished her current scene. It was as if she said, "282 pages, that's enough" and then hurried up to finish. She normally used the mechanism of "show, don't tell," but in order to wind it up quickly, she tells an event, that could have taken up another five or ten pages, in half a paragraph. It was jarring and didn't fit in with the tone of the rest of the book. But, as I said, that is my only complain with a book that taught me a lot about flowers and about its author. I noticed that Orlean has written other books (some of which are in the column on the right), so I think I'll check some of those out.
Rating:
Summary: Passion Plus
Review: Susan Orlean writes with passion about orchids. Not necessarily because she loves orchids, but because she has a passion for story telling. She seems ready to do just about anything to get the scoop on these rare flowers. Of course, her personal involvement in the "orchid adventure" is what makes the book come alive. She is one game woman, and one heck of a writer! THE ORCHID THIEF works even without the drugs, car chases, and shootouts of the movie ADAPTATION. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: And I thought they were just corsages...
Review: After a recent illness my room was crammed with the usual bouquets and plant-me-later mums. I spied a couple of very tall orchids in this jungle. Dogwood orchids. Orchids?? I can't handle exotic flora from Java and Sumatra. Coffee, yes. Orchids, no. My sister, an intrepid gardener, assured me they would 'take care of themselves' and gave me a book called 'Growing Orchids at your Windows.' All the plants expired except the 'fragile' orchids which were dormant but still alive. I got on with my life. Rented a video by my favorite off-the-wall director, Spike Jonze. The movie was 'Adaptation.' A screenwriter has difficulty turning a non-fiction book into a script. The book is 'The Orchid Thief' which I just had to read after seeing this hard to follow but hilarious film. Susan Orleans has written a treatise on the history and cultivation of these tenacious plants. They cling to tree bark in dank uninhabitable swamps taking nourishment from the air. The thieves of the title include a charismatic wierdo living in Florida obsessed with finding the elusive ghost orchid for the purpose of propagation in a nursery. His rationale for making it more available to the public is to save it from people like himself. In spite of his grand design Laroche really just wants to persue the object of his desire. He is a lothario lusting after the unobtainable since the ghost orchid cannot survive outside of it's natural habitat. The seducer is seduced. Beguiled by the thing he wants to possess, he becomes enslaved. The only way to free himself of this infatuation is to turn his back on the orchid world. He had promised the author a glimpse of his prey but lost interest before it came to pass. She has fallen for him, of course, and misses his company while she completes her assignment. He finally relents and they slog about in the primevel ooze, get lost, bicker and never find what they are looking for. Does it really exist? Was it a dream? Does it really matter? Meanwhile my phalaenopsis is blooming. I had to wait for twelve months but seven buds flowered in seven days. I am besotted. I want to own more of these creatures.
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