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Summary: You don't have to love orchids to love this book
Review: After reading Hansen's Motoring with Mohammed, I vowed to read everything and anything he writes or has written. So I had to read Orchid Fever (don't get it confused with Orchid Thief), a novel about greed, thievery, skullduggery, incomprehensible gov't regulations, and an underworld of orchid fanciers/growers that rivals the drug trade. Populated with eccentric characters and devoted fanatics, Orchid Fever makes for fascinating reading.
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Summary: The Absurdity of Reality
Review: This delightful book charmed me from the first and kept me reading in amazement until the end. More bizarre than the most irreverant satire, Orchid Fever examines the incredible characters, situations and locales that make up the world of orchids. You don't need to know a thing about plants to enjoy this book, for it is the people and places Eric Hansen describes that makes for a fascinating read.
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Summary: Orchid Lunacy
Review: Eric Hansen's Orchid Fever is a quick, breezy and highly entertaining read. I just picked up a copy at one of the Orchid Gardens mentioned in the book, and will never look at the place the same way again. As with any avocation that stirs passion, the world of orchids has produced as many oddball varieties of aficionados as there are varieties of orchids. Hnasen brings them all wonderfully to life and you feel like a friend to many of them (except for the CITES nazis). Being relatively new to the orchid world I was able to appreciate the references to certain species, but by no means do you have to grow or even like orchids to love the book. I read the book in a day and my thoughts today have drifted to wondering about the characters that I had met, such as Xavier in Paris and the Harley-riding guys in the States that have been infected by the Orchid Fever.
The book wraps up with a heartwarming tale of Tom Nelson in Minnesota, slogging through blackfly and mosquito infested roadside ditches to save native plants from destruction. Not out of money but because it is the right and noble thing to do. It is people like him that give a glimmer of hope in a world that can often cause despair. Eric Hansen's book also serves the same purpose and I highly recommend it!
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Summary: This is a collectable treasure
Review: ORCHID FEVER is wonderfully successful as a multi-layered exploration of passion, bureaucracy, human nature and the fine line between love and obsession. AND it is a remarkably vivid introduction to these elegant and esoteric plants, due in large part to the author's eloquent descriptions as he becomes more deeply captivated by the color, form, fragrance and habits of these botanical beauties. I believe one of the most important and enduring points made is that our effort to protect and conserve plant and animal life cannot be managed well by a small group of "experts" with a personal agenda and limitless power. Hansen reminds us that we cannot be complacent about any existing rules for protection and conservation and he inspires the reader to ask questions, dig deeper and seek the truth about conservation and protection laws that "safeguard" our wild resources throughout the world. A very well-developed sense of the absurd and a fine wit allow this author to carry any reader deep into the stories told, regardless of one's familiarity with the subject of orchids. And he graciously exposes himself as a slightly off-beat character who, we gradually learn, has a passion for collecting eccentrics and characters as unique as the plants they prize.
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Summary: Orchid Fever is OUTSTANDING!
Review: Mr. Hansen has done a fantastic job combining his experiences, research, observation, and writing to provide us with a revealing look at "the orchid world". I found this expose both entertaining, and also a bit disturbing because it made me realize that although I have only been growing orchids for 2 1/2 years, by virtue of owning and caring for approximately 200 plants and joining a local orchid society and the American Orchid Society, I have become part of the "orchid world" described in the book even though I had not planned things that way! (A fellow orchid society member/neighbor of mine and local paphiopedilum specialist has helped me become interested and active in his hybridization program. This neighbor/specialist knows many of the people Mr. Hanson writes about in Orchid Fever!)This book is a fast read because Hansen's style includes frequent utilization of humor. The vivid descriptions of the personalities Mr. Hanson encountered and the places he visited while preparing to write this book are captivating and entertaining.
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Summary: Psychological Thriller!
Review: Having just completed a book which includes photographs and stories about the extremely rare wild orchids of southwest Florida, I was anxious to visit, with Eric Hansen, the broader world of orchid lovers. I hoped for insight into orchid mania. I got that and much, much more. Easily read, Orchid Fever draws the reader into the psyche of the obsessed, and at the same time, we painlessly learn so much about orchids - wild and cultivated. If you have ever seen an orchid, looked into its sensuous folds and been enchanted, you will love this read. Marvellous! And Eric's good humor - which I first encountered in his "Stranger in the Forest" - is at its sharpest.
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Summary: He's right on!
Review: Finally a book that tells it like it is! Eric Hansen's perceptive look into the world of orchid obsession was especially poignant for me as a recovering orchidphile. I grew orchids for over 25 years, during which time I scoured the tropics, garnered the American Orchid Society's highest awards, spent thousands on single plants and went head to head with true zealots. Thanks to Mr. Hansen, you'll encounter the same obsessed crazies that drove me out of orchids and into his book laughing. It's a historically and horticulturally well researched read, that's told with true wit and style.
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Summary: Orchid Fever
Review: What a tremendous read - I had to keep reminding myself it was non-fiction! Eric, I really was entertained.
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Summary: It Gives Me Fever
Review: This morning at around two AM, I polished off the last page of 'Orchid Fever'. As a budding author and a generally inquisitive person, I appreciated this work very much. What Hansen has accomplished is a triumph in the field of literary journalism: the perfect balance of interview, research, politics, imagination and anecdote. He has availed his readership of such a wide array of facts, and made them so accessible--! Running through those pages was as effortless as taking in a deep, clean breath of air, yet that single breath has left me so happy and fulfilled... As I read, I searched the Web for images of the blossoms (and some of the places) he described; this provided me with the perfect counterpoint to your lush prose. No doubt the cost of publishing a work with full-color photographs would be outrageous (and I am grateful for the affordability of the book), but I cannot imagine having grasped his meaning as fully without sneaking a peek for myself. Doubtless other readers have been, and will be likewise compelled. I am so grateful for the years Hansen put into this book. He has sparked in me a gentle strain of orchid fever, nonetheless one that will surely follow me through life.
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Summary: Fantasic Book
Review: I'm a guy. I don't raise orchid, own orchids or even really have an interest in orchids. Regardless, this was one of the best books I have read in a long time. It is very interesting to read about the crazy word of "orchid people." I had no idea there was so much politics, passion, intrique, prison-time etc associated with orchids. Eric Hansen has a very smooth, intelligent and interesting style. I think almost anyone would get a kick out of this interesting book.
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