White Oleander by Janet Fitch Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of White Oleander
Book Review: A good read for the beach, but dragged on and on and was repetitve
Summary: 2 Stars
White Oleander starts out as a page-turner: There were many nights when I first started reading it that I couldn't put it down. About 1/3 of the way through the 446 pages, however, it starts getting bogged down in these very repetitive plot elements. The following sequence is repeated for the rest of the book: Astrid goes from one foster home to another, has terrible foster parents who seem to be nice at first but then end up being mean and abusive or mentally ill, but she perseveres because of kind neighbors, cute kids, and/or ladies with nice perfume (Fitch mentions various perfumes ad naseum--practically every female character has a signature perfume)--and eventually she ends up leaving because she's either shot, kicked out, or her foster mother kills herself. I'm only giving this book 2 stars because of the well-done sex scenes at the beginning. White Oleander could have been much improved if an editor had taken an axe to it and cut it down by at least a third. It's also highly predictable, which is especially frustrating because it's so damned long.Book Review: A true classic
Summary: 5 Stars
Janet Fitch's debut novel is absolutely bewitching and I recommend it to any person of any age. Although the main character is young, I think everyone has a great deal to learn from Astrid's personal journeys and philosophies on life. A work of absolute magic!Book Review: AMAZING
Summary: 5 Stars
If you liked the movie than you will LOVE this novel...SO much better than the movie, highly recommended!Book Review: All-time favorite book list
Summary: 5 Stars
This is quite simply one of the best books I have ever read. The movie does not compare- if you liked the movie, this book is a MUST READ. I guarantee you will be impressed.Book Review: Appealing But Not Gripping
Summary: 4 Stars
You know how it is when you pick up a book you expect to be good (in this case an Oprah Book ClubŪ Selection). Your hopes are high, so you read the opening: a 12-year-old follows her mother to a California rooftop at night in oleander time. It's a page and a half dotted with poison, a dagger, lovers who kill each other, a knife, gods hacked to pieces, flesh hung from trees, flames and traitors. Oh, my! Such strong foreshadowing! Do you advance? Retreat?
I advanced. By page 40, the larger-than-life mother, poet Ingrid Magnussen, is in jail where she will serve time for the murder of her lover. Fate flings Astrid, the daughter, onto the mercy of the foster care system. This propels the book, a coming-of-age story, into motion.
The abandoned girl moves somewhat predictably from foster home to foster home, each with a significant flaw. In the first home, Astrid, now 14, leaves after an affair with the boy friend of her foster mother. In the next home, her foster parents hate their Afro-American neighbor, Olivia, and reject Astrid for their friendship. The state removes Astrid from the third home when she becomes so hungry she eats school garbage. The fourth home, wealthy and loving, seems ideal until the foster mother commits suicide.
Interwoven with these calamities is Astrid's continuing relationship with her mother, Ingrid. White Oleander comes to a head with Astrid's refusal to help her mother's release from jail.
Even at this point, I could not make up my mind about this book. I found it appealing but not gripping; however, I rarely decide that a book is not worth reading before I finish the last page. Some books seem to creak to a halt, but in others, the final words tie varied parts together. White Oleander ended quietly, but I was able to stand on Fitch's last sentence and witness the way the book's diverse parts blend. The ending left me happy. I understood that despite her domineering mother and her hellish homes, Astrid had indeed come of age and in quite a commendable way.
Marilyn Coffey is an award-winning writer of poetry and a widely published author of prose. Visit her website, http://www.marilyncoffey.net for a sampling of her work.