I love the movie and love the book!!





Mel

White Oleander packs a powerful punch to your emotional psyche. Almost as soon as I started this book, I was swept away by the writing. Astrid Magnussan- just a beautiful wisp of a newly minted teenager watches as her mom spirals downward and loses control, ending up in prison. Astrid finds herself in Foster care and the story takes us on the path that soon defines Astrid's life. Home after home, fancy prostitues, starvation, to suicidal thoughts. This book does not shy away from the dark and gritty places. I was horrified yet found myself wanting more. I wanted to rescue Astrid from the delves of the barrel, and mostly from the poetic grasp of her mother.

The writing was powerful-- I don't have the words to express how lyrical the writing was considering the dark subject matter. I found myself searching for hope and rooting for Astrid more than anything else, I just wanted her to be "Ok" by the end of the book. For me, the book was a little too lengthy in prose and may have made a bigger impact if some of the bulk was edited down a bit.

“Don’t fight the world. Your carpenter friend, he didn’t fight the wood, did he? He made love to it, and what he made was beautiful.”

It’s rare to read a book so raw and captivating. The writing took my breath away with it’s eloquent exploration of pain and hardship, revealed in a way that weaved it into something dark and beautiful. I feel changed for having read this book.

Janet Fitch has an amazing gift for writing novels centered around protagonists that are flawed and scarred, while at the same time making her audience identify with and even love these characters because of their imperfections. Take Astrid, the main character of White Oleander. At the beginning of the story, Astrid's mother goes to jail for poisoning an ex-boyfriend and Astrid is placed in a series of foster homes. During the course of the story, Astrid sleeps with her foster father (at age thirteen, no less), befriends a prostitute, begs for money in the street, sleeps with a theif, and gives a boy a blowjob in exchange for a bag of pot. But at the same time, Fitch presents Astrid as a sensitive, intelligent, and artistically gifted young girl who's just trying to survive - and life sure likes to screw this girl over. Almost every foster home she's placed in is filled with danger and people who should never be allowed to care for anyone, ever. But Astrid survives, and her story is heartbreaking, disturbing, and ultimately beautiful.

Gritted my teeth to get through this and see what happened. The story itself is interesting, but the writing was so fussy and melodramatically overwrought that I wanted to toss the book away. Kept going only because I wanted to understand people's strong response to it.

I had heard previously how good/bad this book is. Most people have been powerfully affected by it. They either really liked it or really disliked it. After reading it, I could see how it could sway you in either ways. You could either take the story at face value and be swayed by it, as I did, or you could critically analyze it and call upon its credibility.

My opinion
Janet Fitch writes White Oleander in a very eloquent style. Poetic writing is not some thing I enjoy usually (since I'm pathetic in poetry). But I didn't have to strain myself here. The writing flowed easily, in fact, I couldn't wait to turn page after page to know what happens next.

White Oleander is told from Astrid's perspective. She sketches a very vivid portrait of her mother, Ingrid - someone who scorns on anyone "beneath" her, someone who is highly appreciative of beauty and condemning of who/what doesn't possess it, someone who believes she has to be in control and jealously frowns on anyone Astrid gets attached to.

Beauty was my mother's law, her religion. You could do anything you wanted, as long as you were beautiful, as long as you did things beautifully. If you weren't, you just didn't exist. She had drummed it into my head since I was small. Although I had noticed by now that reality didn't always conform to my mother's ideas.

Astrid's mother, Ingrid, did not give herself to men. Men came to her, but she frowned on them. Until Barry Kolker came along and proved to be her weakness. When Barry leaves her for another woman, Ingrid's methodical jealousy has her murdering him by poison. Ingrid's sentence to jail starts a six-year transformation in Astrid from the girl who worships her mother to someone who tries to stay away from her.

Astrid's years in foster care are almost gut-wrenching to read about. That a 12-year old girl goes through so much makes it an even more poignant reading. Astrid happens to be very mature for her age. Her initial confusion over what her mother did soon gives way to an acceptance of what she will have to go through. All her foster parents have shades of gray. Every house she stays in, she learns something formidable about human life in general. She slowly comes to learn how to manipulate human wants and desires. In so many instances, I could see quite a bit of her mother, in herself.

White Oleander is very powerfully written. It describes a very harrowing picture of the foster care in LA, where Astrid grew up. A foster parent who suspects her of sleeping in with her boyfriend, another one who suspects her of being lesbian and having a relationship with the prostitute next door, yet another who encourages pot and alcohol in the house. What was saddening was Astrid's belief that she deserved it. Which child deserves any of this? Sometimes I wanted to shake the people around her for being blind to her - A 13-year-old aware of the manipulative power of sex, the lifting effect of drugs and being attracted to old or married men.

However dire these situations, White Oleander also strongly advocates that human companionship can be found in the least expected places. In the geeky studious child who is very knowledgeable about nature, in a woman who sleeps with men for money, in the childless mother, who adores Astrid but who is highly suspicious about her husband's fidelity, in the pregnant foster-child who looks to Astrid for support during her pregnancy. These little tales of love moved me just as much as the harsh tales did. What made the sorrows more unbearable is that the good events didn't last. Much as Astrid was being doomed to a life of hardships, she learned from these situations to get the upper-hand.

I did get bugged initially by the fact that hardships follow Astrid. I would not have liked White Oleander if Astrid never grew to love and feel loved. The one foster-home that gives her that moves me more than the shady foster-homes she has been in. I loved Astrid's coming of age in this book, and how she adapted to different situations, but I liked Ingrid's character-sketch more. Janet Fitch has painted a sharp picture of Astrid's mom, with all her staunchly held beliefs and her conviction that Astrid could only "belong" to her. It was a portrait that one would hate instantly and yet be enamored by its sharp colors and strong inward pulls.

I would strongly recommend White Oleander to you. It is very hard to do justice to this book, and no matter how much I tried, I couldn't quite get it right. So I'll just say, go ahead and read it!

Title Demystified
Did you know that white oleanders are poisonous? My knowledge of botany is at the very bottom, so this particular fact was quite new to me. White Oleander is all about the poisons in the human spirit. There is the frequent mention of "sin virus", when someone yearns for something wrong - sex, drugs, or anything that is frowned upon. There is the reference to Ingrid's poisonous tentacles that sweetly lures everyone and then jumps in for the kill. White Oleander is a strong tale of how the many poisons in a person can overcome the good feelings and undermine a relationship.

Cover Art Demystified
I was initially captivated by the cover of this book, way before reading its synopsis. The beautiful woman slowly unzipping herself, gives me the image of human temptations and manipulations. Human poisons, in other words, that much laces and interleaves the whole story of Astrid and Ingrid.

Dark, depressing, disturbing, and so beautiful! When the author described the August summer heat I felt it, like hot breath on my neck. I fell in love with Ingrid and her beauty and ideas of the world. Then I became Astrid, and I felt how much she loved her and how bad it hurt to also hate her, but hate Ingrid I did! I would walk away from long reading sessions feeling hardened and detached. It's not an easy read, but I find literature that can make me feel so strongly well deserving of praise. The words were like a sad song. I connected with them so much that they became the theme song of my life for days. "The phoenix must burn to emerge." I love that Astrid found love at the end and I loved seeing how her past formed her into who she was. I too have been burned by a lost childhood, and spent a lot of time while reading this crying for myself. Life makes you or breaks you. I too, am a survivor.

This book will rip your heart apart, and then put it back together again stronger than it was before.

_______________________________________________________________________

this is a horrifying book, not necessarily for the story's content (which IS horrifying), but for it's plot, execution, characterization, and particularly its overcooked writing.

some observations:

1) astrid. the novel's protagonist, a fourteen year old girl, is a thoroughly contradictory character. some people have written that astrid is not your 'average' teenage girl and that she is 'gifted.' if she were such a girl, i would expect much more of her. i'm not a psychologist nor have i ever been shot, but i suspect any fourteen year old girl who's mother was sent to prison for murder, who offered herself sexually to a man three times her age, is shot by her first foster mother, performs oral sex on a boy in exchange for 1/2 bag of marijuana would be SEVERLY emotionally disturbed and troubled. astrid, however, seems to care less that she was nearly murdered. instead she focuses on and longs for her sexual encounters with ray. remember, this is a FOURTEEN year old girl. astrid blows her credibility as a narrator very early on because no one who's gone through her experiences would be in as good as shape as she is. it also discredits her as a character, and with a discredited character, the novel doesn't stand a chance. think about a fourteen year old girl you know. now imagine her beaten, shot, mother in prison for murder, sexually loose, and yearning for a lover three times her age. it simply wouldn't happen.

2) the plot: i have trouble with any novel where the plot is advanced by a series of tragedies or dire circumstances. more often than not, it's a gimmick (or crutch) inexperienced writers rely on when realistic ideas for authentic plots run thin. read joan didion or toni morrison (or steinbeck) and how see how they use tragedy--it's real, honest, and most importanly believable. most of the 'white oleander's' is simply too unrealistic.

3) the prose: borderline comical. i'm awe-struck to read how many people have praised fitch's prose. fitch's use of similie is so overdone and forced that it slows the narrative down to a snail's pace. similes should be used judiciously and flow naturally. fitch, on the other hand, find it's necessary to inject as many as four or five similies in just about every paragraph, and most of them just ring false. the 'white' metaphor is also an unfortunate victim. count the number of times fitch uses 'white' to describe astrid, ingrid, clothes, food, dishes, the sky. she beats the 'white' metaphor and never lets the reader decipher it for themselves. the majority of the book is over-described; the sex scenes, in particular, are dreadful. i don't want to read how a fourteen year old remembers every graphic detail of performing oral sex on a middle-aged man. it's too much. a 14 year old girl who's performed oral sex on a man is not going to long for it again. i can tell you that. furthermore: at one point astrid sees a shiny convertible, compares it to a man, and imagines herself climaxing while laying on its hood; during her encounter with ray, she describes the act as riding a horse through the surf. good grief.

4) the characters and uniformly cliched and poorly drawn. astrid's mother is the self-absorbed, feminist poet. her first foster mother is a bible-thumping floozy; her stepmother's boyfriend is the object of astrid's desires, even though he's more then three times her age; the second stepmother is demanding and her husband is quiet and reserved; and of course we have the 'hooker with a heart of gold' who takes astrid under her wing. in fact, the professional prostitute is the only emotionally stable and 'nice' character in the entire 150 pages that i read.

i'm sure that as most of the teenage girls grow up and mature, they'll see 'white oleander' for what is is: an immature novel masquerading as high literature. and i sincerely hope that no more young women identify with astrid in any way. that's the real tragedy.

White Oleander by Janet Fitch

I’ve probably mentioned it here before, but I didn’t much care about movies in the early 2000s. I was too stunned trying to figure out how I went from being a fairly independent, somewhat financially secure young woman doing what I wanted with my free time to pulling my hair out over a baby that wouldn’t sleep more than an hour or two at a time for twenty-four hours straight. The baby eventually slept after a year but then grew into a very active toddler with a vivid imagination that needed constant entertainment. I said I’d never go through it again… until I did three years later. The second time around was much easier. Was it because I had things figured out? Or was it because each child is a different human being? Perhaps a combination of both is the most appropriate answer. In any case, movies and literature were not on my agenda at the time. Besides, this book, which I took to be a family drama of sorts, wasn’t my sort of thing anyway. Why did I want to read about other people’s trauma and dysfunction? What if it rubbed off on me?! These days, however, I’ll take all I can get of this stuff, please!

“I wanted to hear what she was saying. I wanted to smell that burnt midnight again, I wanted to feel that wind. It was a secret wanting, like a song I couldn’t stop humming, or loving someone I could never have.”

I’m not going to attempt to tell you about this novel. I will say it’s simply incredible – probably some of the most striking and potent writing I’ve read in a long time. So much is packed in here: the many facets of motherhood, the absence of father, coming-of-age, loneliness, desperation, strength, and true growth. I absolutely loved these characters – good, bad and everything in between. It’s all so remarkably well done. Following the pre-teen Astrid into her teenage years and young adulthood was a journey I’d make all over again if I had the time to start right over. I both loved and hated her mother, Ingrid, as passionately as Astrid did herself. That’s the mark of a gifted writer, I’m certain.

“If evil means to be self-motivated, to be the center of one’s own universe, to live on one’s own terms, then every artist, every thinker, every original mind, is evil. Because we dare to look through our own eyes rather than mouth clichés lent us from the so-called Fathers.”

If you, like me, have been remiss and ignored this book up until now, then don’t wait any longer! I’ve considered watching the film adaptation, but I think I’m going to leave it alone. I watched the trailer and I just don’t think it will do the novel justice. But I would kill to read another book with this wondrous prose! I see that the Revolution of Marina M. might be an option for me. I think I’ll go for it.

Oh, and that difficult child from the early 2000s? I wouldn’t trade him for the world. He’s a clever, stable, incredibly creative young man and I can’t wait for him to come home for a visit in a couple of weeks!

“Loneliness is the human condition. Cultivate it. The way it tunnels into you allows your soul room to grow. Never expect to outgrow loneliness. Never hope to find people who will understand you, someone to fill that space. An intelligent, sensitive person is the exception, the very great exception. If you expect to find people who will understand you, you will grow murderous with disappointment. The best you’ll ever do is to understand yourself, know what it is that you want, and not let the cattle stand in your way.”

The beginning was fun because I loved Ingrid, I loved young Astrid, and I felt very close to the young heroine. The book was good when it was open and free to be interpreted. The writing is like a song.
Then Fitch tries to tell us what she means instead of showing us, and she simplifies, she closes up the world she has created, she makes Ingrid into some sort of morally ambiguous villain when she’s just a woman. In the end, it’s a little smaller than I would have liked, too limited.
In all her preaching against Ingrid’s “changing the world to her vision” she is telling us she believes the world has a set reality. She is showing us her set reality. It makes me angry, because the larger point is being missed. There are so many great ideas that were touched on but just left beneath the surface, not even understood by Fitch herself.
Ingrid Magnussen was my favorite part.

White Oleander is a very unique and amazing piece of literature. The novel is beautifully written with a passionate and enthralling plot and incredibly vivid descriptions which make it easy for the reader to visualise every person and place Astrid encounters. I was overwhelmed and deeply touched by Janet Fitch's wonderful prose, the intensity of her descriptions, and the incredible insight into each of her characters. I adored the protagonist, Astrid. I cried with her, sobbed with her and laughed with her. This girl's story is one of survival, despite the odds being heavily stacked against her. There is something quite magical within it's pages and it reads almost like a dream.


I am giving this book a well deserved five stars!