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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.
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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
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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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