The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession

by Susan Orlean (Goodreads Author)

3.65 of 5 stars 3.65 · rating details · 5,692 ratings · 664 reviews

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK

A modern classic of personal journalism, The Orchid Thief is Susan Orlean’s wickedly funny, elegant, and captivating tale of an amazing obsession.

From Florida’s swamps to its courtrooms, the New Yorker writer follows one deeply eccentric and oddly attractive man’s possibly criminal pursuit of an endangered flower. Determined to clone the rare...more

Paperback, 284 pages

Published January 4th 2000 by Ballantine Books (first published 1998)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger

The MOVIE was BETTER than the BOOK

182nd out of 695 books — 7,077 voters

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

Microhistories -- Sweeping Social Histories Of Just One Thing

52nd out of 565 books — 840 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Oct 02, 2007 Carrie rated it 4 of 5 stars

"This was the low, simmering part of the state, as quiet as a shrine except for crickets keeping time and the creak of trees bending and the crackly slam of a screen door and the clatter of a car now and then ..."

"We whipped past abandoned bungalows melting into woodpiles, and past NO TRESPASSING signs shot up like Swiss cheese, and past a rusty boat run aground on someone's driveway, and past fences leaning like old ladies, and then almost past a hand-lettered sign that interested Laroche, so h...more

5 likes · like · see review

Sep 17, 2007 Suzanne rated it 4 of 5 stars

If you haven't figured it out by now, I like histories and I like learning how people--usually real people-- live their lives in their particular environment.

This has both: learn the history of the orchid and discover a subculture of crazed flower lovers in Florida. I knew nothing about orchids when I started reading this-- it made me want to know more. 'Why are people obsessed? ... Huh, that is kind of interesting... what an intriguing little flower!' It made me covet my own orchid (could I ke...more

3 likes · like · see review

Mar 16, 2008 Cyrano rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: those fascinated by passion

Number one: don't judge this book by the movie Adaptation, which is not a screenplay of the book, but rather a screenplay that contains pieces of the book.
Number two, my favorite quote: "The world is so huge that people are always getting lost in it. There are too many ideas and things and people, too many directions to go. I was starting to believe that the reason it matters to care passionately about something is that it whittles the world down to a more manageable size. It makes the world se...more

10 likes · like · see review

Aug 22, 2007 DumDum rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Epiphyte/plant lovers

Shelves: readit

I enjoyed this book. The exploration of how an obsession can dictate a persons life is exceptional. That being said I must say I tired of the Horticultural explanations and descriptions. I did enjoy much of the history of the orchid.

I also enjoyed the movie Adaptation. Inspired by the book but in noway an actual book made into movie. The Nicholas Cage characters are pure fiction the other characters are true to the book if not the true story.

1 like · like · see review

May 21, 2007 Amy rated it 1 of 5 stars

This book was too scientific for me. I had no idea how obsessed people are over orchid and how many varieties there are, but there were some chapters that were way too scientific for me and I had no interest in the book during those sections. I stopped reading it halfway through. Just had no interest in it.

3 likes · like · see review

Jan 28, 2009 Eric_W rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: true-crime

Rex Stout’s fat detective suffered from orchidelirium. He would never vary his routine of working in his famous plant rooms on the top floor of the brownstone house no matter what the emergency, to Archie Goodwin’s consternation.
Like bibliomania, orchidelirium is a mania that involves collecting — unlimited collecting. The orchid is “a jewel of a flower on a haystack of a plant.” Orchids have evolved into the “biggest flowering plant family on earth,” and many survive only in small niches they...more Rex Stout’s fat detective suffered from orchidelirium. He would never vary his routine of working in his famous plant rooms on the top floor of the brownstone house no matter what the emergency, to Archie Goodwin’s consternation.
Like bibliomania, orchidelirium is a mania that involves collecting — unlimited collecting. The orchid is “a jewel of a flower on a haystack of a plant.” Orchids have evolved into the “biggest flowering plant family on earth,” and many survive only in small niches they have carved out for themselves. They are found in many different environments, and human hybridization of the plants creates more varieties all the time.
Those afflicted can never seem to get enough. Susan Orlean describes this mania in her fascinating book, which is a compendium of information about orchids as well. The number of orchid species is unknown, and more are discovered or developed all the time. Larceny among collectors is not unknown, and Orlean describes John Laroche, a man of many manias — he collected turtles, and I mean lots of turtles, as a child. Laroche dreamed of making a fortune by finding the one really rare specimen of plant that he could then breed and sell. Seeing himself as a moral thief, Laroche, rationalized his larcenous behavior. He allied himself with the Seminoles, knowing that they were exempt from federal laws prohibiting the collection of wild orchids, so that he could hopefully collect and breed the rare ghost orchid. His justification was that once bred it would likely no longer be collected illegally.
Apparently, flower theft is epidemic in Florida; one case Orlean cites was the theft of a fifteen-foot palm tree. The tree was dug up and the hole filled in during the night. How they managed that with no one noticing is somewhat startling. One farmer lost $20,000 worth of bell peppers from his fields. He decided to get out of the business.
Laroche merely provides anecdotal backdrops for a very interesting history of the mania for orchid collecting.

(less)

1 like · like · see review

Aug 30, 2007 Robert rated it 4 of 5 stars

Like a lot of people, my entry point for this book was the film Adaptation. I assumed that the film deviated a lot more from the book than it actually did (of course, in the book the author doesn't really -spoiler alert?- have a clandestine drug-fueled affair with John Laroche that culminates in vehicular manslaughter), but all the really profound themes about obsession and longing remain intact.
I was pleasantly surprised that the presentation, essentially a New Yorker piece fleshed out to its m...more

4 likes · like · see review

Aug 24, 2008 Ellen rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

I was really disappointed in this book. I saw the movie that was based on it, "Adaptation," and I really loved it, so I was looking forward to reading the book. But what I discovered is that I am not interested enough in orchids or orchid-growers to read a whole book about them. The original New Yorker article about John Laroche and his trial for stealing orchids probably would have been just about enough information for me, meaning that this book was about 270 pages more than I wanted to know a...more

1 like · like · see review

Jun 27, 2007 Mirna rated it 4 of 5 stars

If you've seen Adaptation, the movie was made based on this book. In the movie Susan Orlean was played brilliantly by Merryl Streep, one of my favorite actresses. I don't know if Streep had met Orlean in person or not, as Jolie made friends with Pearl before shooting a Mighty Heart.
The book is written in semi-journalistic narration, very easy to follow, filled with informations about another world out there that was pretty much mind-blowing for me. I appreciate several certain profession after I...more

1 like · like · see review

Mar 05, 2013 Brandy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013, albright-memorial-library

Have to be honest - I picked up this book after a fit of reminiscing about our honeymoon adventure, the days in southern Florida and the Keys in particular. On our swamp hike/kayak trip in the Everglades, our guide talked about the orchid poachers and pointed out some ransacked spots, so I was already about a fraction of a percent more knowledgeable about this subject than the average Pennsylvania, I suppose.

Also, I had no idea there was a movie based on this until I skimmed through other revie...more

like · see review

Aug 19, 2012 Vera rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book would be more accurately called, A True Story of Disappointment. Susan Orlean strikes me as a woman looking for a revelation. She pretty much admits that she scans papers for interesting tales of people who have experienced true passion for something, then seeks them out and follows them around under the guise of journalism or writing a book, but really in the hopes that at some point, her own life will be changed. But passion isn't always contagious, especially if you try too hard to...more This book would be more accurately called, A True Story of Disappointment. Susan Orlean strikes me as a woman looking for a revelation. She pretty much admits that she scans papers for interesting tales of people who have experienced true passion for something, then seeks them out and follows them around under the guise of journalism or writing a book, but really in the hopes that at some point, her own life will be changed. But passion isn't always contagious, especially if you try too hard to chase it and understand it.

John Laroche is one such obsessed and passionate person whom she discovers and follows around to learn about orchids. At the start of the book, he's on trial for stealing rare orchids from a federally owned preserve in Florida (thus "The Orchid Thief"). But, because he enlisted the help of a local Native American tribe to do the actual collecting, he argues that federal law states this should be perfectly allowed, and plans to set up an orchid breeding business on tribal land. It's a setup bizarre and interesting enough to warrant being made into a movie, which it did--in Adaptation.

Laroche is a fascinating character, and the book is essentially about him. He's an unconventional expert in the orchid world, revered by many, driving around in a beat-up van filled with junk, constantly pontificating about his latest scheme that will skirt the law and make him rich quick (but somehow selflessly help others at the same time). He's a walking contradiction: maybe a genius, maybe just a scammer. Orlean is never quite sure.

SPOILERS!
But, we soon learn, Laroche's passions can be all-consuming yet fleeting. He has previously dedicated his life to, and then completely given up on, collecting many other items. Again, we're not sure if he quits this way because of repeated heartbreak (most of his massive orchid collection is destroyed in a storm), or whether he just gets bored. By the end of the book, Laroche is quitting orchid collecting, even though Orlean continues to doggedly seek his guidance and approval. Ultimately, you suspect that he has quit these obsessions and madcap schemes without looking back because they disappointed him: They didn't pan out the way he thought, or something went wrong, or he didn't ultimately find the satisfaction he was looking for.

Orlean doesn't find it either. She longs to see a ghost orchid, the orchid species that, of thousands, is most coveted and is supposedly most stunningly beautiful. Despite her apprehension of entering the primordial swamps, she ventures into the Fakahatchee multiple times to look for them. In the final climax of the book, she convinces Laroche to take her back out into the massive swamp to find the elusive ghost orchid. He promises her that they will. In the final pages, you expect some closing moment of redemption or fulfillment--of Orlean finding the passion and revelation she seeks. Instead, they get lost and wander around in the humid jungle for hours. The orchid is forgotten and ironically, the final moment of relief comes when they catch a glimpse through the trees of Laroche's car, and have successfully made it back. In the end, this is a true story, not fiction--and this ending captures the more common disappointments of real life all too accurately.

From the start of the book, you (or maybe just I) expect Orlean to fall in love with Laroche. Someone that passionate about beautiful things can be very enthralling, and his odd, unpredictable behavior seems to fascinate her even more. But, to add another layer of disappointment to the story, this apparently didn't happen. In an interview at the end of the book, she denies any romantic feelings towards Laroche, and explains it just wouldn't be professional for an author to allow herself to get involved with her subject. Sure it's professional not to, but it's not interesting either. And I'm not sure I buy her detachment. In the movie version, at least, Meryl Streep's Orlean does in fact fall into a dangerous love affair with Laroche. And, as convoluted and ridiculous as Adaptation is, it's ultimately more satisfying than this book.

(Orlean's discussion of Florida history (a place that's always been full of scammers) and orchid collecting is very interesting and well interspersed with the events of the book. She also captures the atmosphere of this strange state, where land can be created and unmade, and wild nature is always on the brink of reclaiming civilization, very well.)(less)

like · see review

Jul 09, 2012 Susan Haines rated it 3 of 5 stars

I heard this book title being bandied about quite a bit before finally taking it on myself. A nonfiction story of the depths of people's obsessions, I loved the beginning of the book. Full of strange characters and improbable situations, I was fascinated.

A few more chapters in, I started to feel restless. Was it my imagination, or was the author starting to repeat herself...a lot? What was the book about, really? It felt like being trapped on the phone with a friend who talks too much, just hang...more

like · see review

Jun 07, 2012 Katharine Ott rated it 3 of 5 stars

Before I arrived at the screen to enter my review of The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean, I saw the comment that the book was "wickedly funny." I beg to differ. Admittedly, I will view the orchids at my grocery store with a fresh eye henceforth - the image seared on my brain right now is the existence of "orchid kennels" where enthusiasts house their orchids until they bloom and once that momentous event occurs, it's back to the kennel! The overall sense of the book was the single-minded lives that...more

like · see review

Apr 19, 2012 Kate rated it 5 of 5 stars

The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean

A while back when I blogged about reading and enjoying WINGED OBSESSION, Jessica Speart ‘s compelling work of narrative nonfiction about an exotic butterfly collector and the fish and wildlife agent obsessed with bringing him to justice, a few people who commented wanted to make sure I’d also read Susan Orlean’s THE ORCHID THIEF. I hadn’t, but somehow, that book never rose to the top of my to-read list. I wasn’t all that into orchids, so I wasn’t sure it was for m...more The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean

A while back when I blogged about reading and enjoying WINGED OBSESSION, Jessica Speart ‘s compelling work of narrative nonfiction about an exotic butterfly collector and the fish and wildlife agent obsessed with bringing him to justice, a few people who commented wanted to make sure I’d also read Susan Orlean’s THE ORCHID THIEF. I hadn’t, but somehow, that book never rose to the top of my to-read list. I wasn’t all that into orchids, so I wasn’t sure it was for me. What I didn’t realize then was that while the book is indeed about orchids, it’s more about single-minded passions and Florida and the swamp and the way those things can tug at a person’s soul. THE ORCHID THIEF was indeed a book for me. I read it on vacation in Florida, just a few miles from the Fakahatchee Strand where the whole story began. And I loved it.

Orlean tells the facts of this story in a way that’s at least as suspenseful and intriguing as any novel I’ve ever read. At the center of that story is John Laroche, the man she’d read about in a small newspaper clipping when he was in court for stealing wild orchids from Florida’s state-owned Fakahatchee Strand. Laroche is a character in the very best sense of the word – an eccentric, imperfect, intense bean pole of a man who invited Orlean into his world. What she discovered there was a doorway to the world of exotic plants and the people who love them, sometimes more than they love their own families or even their own lives. Where one finds passion that intense, one also finds amazing drama, and that’s what kept me turning the pages of this book. That, and the chance to travel through Orlean’s words back through a place that both enchants and terrifies me – the Fakahatchee Strand, where I took my first off-boardwalk hike this spring.

In THE ORCHID THIEF, Orleans weaves together the story of Laroche himself and his stolen orchids with the history of orchid collecting, the high stakes trade that it is today, the Florida real estate scams of the 1940s and 50s, and the history of the Fakahatchee Strand itself. Full of colorful characters and settings so rich you’ll feel like you should be slapping at mosquitoes, THE ORCHID THIEF is a great read for lovers of nature as well as students of human psychology. I couldn’t put it down.
(less)

2 likes · like · see review

Mar 29, 2012 James rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was a strange book,
Only about 10% about the Orchid thief,
the rest was everything the author tripped over in Florida while traveling there.

It could be titled "An abbreviated history of Orchids and everything else in Florida".

Covers Orchid collecting from about 1830 to the present,
the genealogies of minor players going back to the 1830's,
Florida land sale schemes for the last 100 years,
and just about anything else Florida related.
Even Queen Victoria.

etc etc etc.

About the only things not i...more

like · see review

Jan 10, 2012 Marie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction, science, crime, history, biography, reviewed, library

The Orchid Thief is a little odd, in that it covers so much: tracing not simply Laroche's theft of the wild ghost orchid, but the history of orchid collecting (with a call-back to Paxton who played a significant role in At Home: A Short History of Private Life), the science of orchid growing, the history and place of the Seminole tribe, and Florida's culture and environment.

Susan Orlean handles even that many topics with a deft hand, however, and even though the connecting thread of Larcoche's s...more

1 like · like · see review

Sep 10, 2011 Kater Cheek rated it 4 of 5 stars

The adage "never judge a book by its movie" is true in the case of Susan Orlean's THE ORCHID THIEF. This book has nothing to do with screenwriting, Nicholas Cage, identical twins, or drug use. It has everything to do with orchids, international plant smuggling, Florida, wetlands, Seminoles, and people who get obsessed about a subject to an extent beyond what most of us can understand.

Orlean follows around John Larouche, an orchid expert and obsessive individual who has the tendency to become com...more The adage "never judge a book by its movie" is true in the case of Susan Orlean's THE ORCHID THIEF. This book has nothing to do with screenwriting, Nicholas Cage, identical twins, or drug use. It has everything to do with orchids, international plant smuggling, Florida, wetlands, Seminoles, and people who get obsessed about a subject to an extent beyond what most of us can understand.

Orlean follows around John Larouche, an orchid expert and obsessive individual who has the tendency to become completely engrossed in something to the exclusion of all else. During the course of the book, his passion is orchids. Larouche is arrested, along with some Seminole Indians he's formed a partnership with, while poaching orchids from the Fakahatchee. She follows him from orchid show to nursery, from cloning lab to swamp, trying to find the ghost orchid. Larouche himself is a character worthy of a biography. The Seminoles refer to him as "Crazy White Man" and that seems apt. Tall and wraith-like, possessing of his own peculiar moral code, Larouche is a walking encyclopedia about whatever subject currently fascinates him.

But Orlean doesn't just talk about Larouche. She discusses the history of orchids, and of the men who were sent to the furthest reaches of the globe to secure these plants for orchid-mad collectors in the nineteenth century. She also talks about the history of the swamps of Florida, and about the impact the land has had on its inhabitants. I've never been to Florida, and this book makes it sound like such a fascinating and exotic place that it's now firmly on my bucket list. I loved the little side stories of adventurers lost in the swamps, of alligator wrestlers, and of land plots that were sold and never lived in.

If you're interested in plants, in history, and of human-botanical relations, I recommend this book. I especially recommend this book if you liked THE BOTANY OF DESIRE by Michael Pollan, because they both have a way of looking at plants through a sociological lens. I don't necessarily recommend it for people who liked the movie ADAPTATION. The movie and the book have almost nothing to do with one another.(less)

1 like · like · see review

May 20, 2011 Diane Gihring rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I had an amazing experience with this book.

It started with watching the movie "Adaptation" with Meryl Streep and Nicolas Cage. It is a very wacky movie about a screen writer who is trying to write an adaptation of this particular novel. It was really funky and funny and interesting and so I was so curious if this novel really existed that was the basis of the movie. And to my delight it did exist:). So I had to get it...and it was really good.

I loved reading about this guy-Laroche-who is so in...more

1 like · like · see review

Mar 06, 2011 S Perati rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean is a true story of passion, addiction, and personal discovery. Contrary to what the title suggests, this book's plot is more autobiographical than crime-related. The misleading title and cover page is somewhat disappointing to those who are expecting to read a "true crime" novel, but actually end up reading a book on plants. However, even though the book is not centered around crime, it is still a suspenseful and fascinating read.

In this book, Laroche, an orchid...more The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean is a true story of passion, addiction, and personal discovery. Contrary to what the title suggests, this book's plot is more autobiographical than crime-related. The misleading title and cover page is somewhat disappointing to those who are expecting to read a "true crime" novel, but actually end up reading a book on plants. However, even though the book is not centered around crime, it is still a suspenseful and fascinating read.

In this book, Laroche, an orchid grower, as well as one of the main characters in the story, shows off the incredible world of orchids. Orlean portrays Laroche as an eccentric and crazy man who is "sharply handsome, in spite of the fact that he is missing all of his front teeth" (Orlean 3). Laroche is tried in court for attempting to steal a polyrrhiza lindenii, or ghost orchid, from the Fakahatchee preserve in Florida. Since the Fakahatchee is native Seminole land, Laroche tries to justify the orchid crime by getting his Seminole friends to help him. The ghost orchid is federally protected and grows nowhere else in the world, and it is described by many as "an ethereal and beautiful white frog" when it is in bloom.

This book is very eye opening in that it makes the reader aware of the fascinating world of orchids and how much these plants mean to some people. Using her unique writing style, Orlean effortlessly weaves back and forth from the story to the background information about orchids. In fact, Orlean does this so successfully that it the reader hardly realizes how much they are learning about orchids until the end.

Throughout the book, the author, who is an essayist for the New Yorker, subconsciously becomes more and more involved in her own story until she becomes the subject of the plot, and the book turns into a piece of personal journalism. By the end of the book, the big question that remains is, "Will Orlean get to see a ghost orchid?", and in her journey to find this orchid, Orlean learns numerous life-lessons and discovers what her true passion is.(less)

like · see review

Feb 18, 2011 Denis Farley rated it 5 of 5 stars

Very interesting study on the legal implications of harvesting a protected orchid (Ghost Orchid), ostensibly on public lands by a native american . . . the legal investigation delves into the sovereignty of Florida's native american population, real estate laws and history, the nature of ownership and aboriginal ethnicity. Then there's the problem of keeping the evidence alive, when maybe only the accused or an accomplice can, not to mention the species that might be in jeopardy as only recogniz...more

like · see review

Sep 25, 2010 Amelmag rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction

Probably one of the most unique (bizarre?) books I have ever read. Here's the reflection I wrote after I read it:

I know absolutely nothing about plants. Nor do I really have an interest in ever knowing anything about plants. And yet, be that as it may, I found Susan Orlean’s book, The Orchid Thief, fascinating. How can that be?

First off, the book is not like any other book, and definitely not like any other biography, I have read. Upon reading the first chapter, it comes across as a fairly stra...more Probably one of the most unique (bizarre?) books I have ever read. Here's the reflection I wrote after I read it:

I know absolutely nothing about plants. Nor do I really have an interest in ever knowing anything about plants. And yet, be that as it may, I found Susan Orlean’s book, The Orchid Thief, fascinating. How can that be?

First off, the book is not like any other book, and definitely not like any other biography, I have read. Upon reading the first chapter, it comes across as a fairly straightforward narrative: the life and passions of John Laroche, a man accused, and convicted, of stealing orchids out of a Florida state reserve called the Fakahatchee Strand. On reading further, however, the book is no longer so simple.

My next thought is that the story is actually a biography, not about John Laroche, but about orchids. However, as the book shifts from recounting the history of orchid collecting into recounting the history of the Fakahatchee, and then the Seminole Indians, and then other plants entirely, it becomes obvious that, despite the name, orchids are not the theme of this book.

So what is the theme? What is this book about? What is this book a biography about? And how, even though I care nothing about plants, does Orlean keep me reading? I think the answer to these questions is hinted at in the subtitle: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession. Susan Orlean did not write a book about Orchids because she loves plants. Instead, she wrote a story about something that baffled her. Why, throughout history, have people been so obsessed with vegetation? Why are so many individuals willing to dedicate their entire lives to, and spend all of their wealth on, plants?

Or, more importantly, why are people ever obsessed? With anything. What, even, is obsession? What does it stem from? What does it give to us, and what does it take away? Underneath the plants, and the history, and the strange people, these are the questions of Orlean’s book.

Personally, I find Orlean’s interactions with the eccentric world of plant obsession fascinating. The historical details she includes are anything but boring. This is a strange story, and all of her details are startling. Her subject matter may only appeal to a small audience, but the way she presents her subject matter targets a much larger group of readers. She is not writing a book for plant fanatics. Not really. She keeps us interested with bizarre facts, keen observations, and unique experiences.

However, she is a bit random, and while this can be intriguing, it can also be distracting. Some of her tangents seem to have little or no connection with the rest of her story. She also repeats herself. This could be a good thing, if her goal was to help us keep track of people and places, but instead it is redundant. She retells details as if they were new information, and so, instead of remembering the person from a previous chapter, we merely experience déjà vu, and are left a bit dazed and confused.

She also uses extremely long paragraphs. Paragraphs that clump together multiple thoughts, and even stories. While this is not necessarily wrong, I did find it distracting, and I thought it made the book harder to read. (less)

2 likes · like · see review

Aug 01, 2010 Mike rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. 'The Orchid Thief' is a journal/travelogue of Susan Orlean’s experience with horticulturalists in Florida. The genesis of the story was the author reading an article about an eccentric man named John Larouche who was caught stealing Orchids from the Fakahatchee Strand State Park. Technically, he supervised Seminole Indians who removed the plants, thinking that they would be legally protected by their Native American status. His scheme was to remove the plants, replicate them and sell them. The...more

like · see review

Apr 16, 2009 Joe rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book is the semi-rambling story of John Laroche, a shady characters that was arrested for stealing endangered orchid species from protected Florida swamplands. The book goes off on many tangents; some are interesting, some aren't.

The orchid industry is ridiculous. Wait, I can go a step back: orchids themself are ridiculous. The plants have many strange shapes and sizes, their reproduction involves pseudobulbs, it takes years before a new plant flowers, many of them are extremely fragile and...more

like · see review

Apr 04, 2013 Beth rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

I enjoyed this book. My friend Linda told me I should read it many times in the last seven years, and I checked it out of the library but never got to it until now. I wish I had read it seven years ago, because it irritates me a little to read nonfiction books that are several years old, but not old enough to be old yet. So I kept thinking, "Hmmm. It was published in 1998. So she has the Internet, but probably just dial-up connection. And no cell phone. Too bad. That would have come in handy." W...more I enjoyed this book. My friend Linda told me I should read it many times in the last seven years, and I checked it out of the library but never got to it until now. I wish I had read it seven years ago, because it irritates me a little to read nonfiction books that are several years old, but not old enough to be old yet. So I kept thinking, "Hmmm. It was published in 1998. So she has the Internet, but probably just dial-up connection. And no cell phone. Too bad. That would have come in handy." Whereas if the book were old, it would have a historical feel to it, and if it were current, I wouldn't think about it at all. But I did like it.

Susan Orlean has a way of describing things that makes them alive and immediate and important, so that I feel like I've been in a horribly hot and sweltery swamp, now, even though I'm on the other end of the country in Washington state and it's cool and rainy here. Also, her short histories of various orchid hunters, explorers, growers, etc. were awesome. They didn't drag on for so long that I felt like I was having a history lesson, but they were long enough to get me into it.

I watched Adaptation a few years ago, and I vaguely remember that that movie had something to do with this book. Nicholas Cage was trying to write a screen adaptation of the book, I think. And in the movie, Chris Cooper played John Laroche, who is a central character in the book, even though I wouldn't say it's about him. Chris Cooper did an excellent John Laroche, as far as I can tell. I pictured him all the way through, and he totally fit. Meryl Streep didn't work for me as Susan Orlean, but since there was an author pic in the back of the jacket, I didn't need her in my head. Now that I'm done with the book, we're going to watch the movie again. If I remember right, the movie was a commentary on how Hollywood perverts things and messes up stories, even when they're supposed to be true stories, so that the story in the movie goes off in a totally different direction, but it's all irony. Either that, or it just perverts the story and goes off in a totally different direction, and it's not irony, it's normal Hollywood. But I did like Chris Cooper, and I liked the circularity of the movie, and the freakiness of two Nicholas Cages with frizzy red hair (he had a twin).

I may have thought about the movie too much while I was reading the book.

The things I didn't like about the book are few, but they were enough to knock it down from a pretty good 4 star to a solid 3 star. 1) It had some repetition that bored me. Not a lot, but every now and then I'd start thinking, "Yes, but you said that already. Get on with it." 2) It was nonfiction, and even though she wrote a lot of it in a way that fooled me into reading it like fiction, it wasn't always chronological, but it didn't exactly do flashbacks, and that had me counting to see how many pages I had left to read so I could go on to the next book on my list, which is the third in a series, and YA, and dystopian, and I bet I finish it in an afternoon. Nonfiction just takes too long!

If you enjoy reading nonfiction for pleasure, though, you should definitely read this book. It's well-written, and about a topic and characters that are bizarre and noteworthy. Also, it has the potential to make you think about the ways in which you, yourself, might be bizarre and noteworthy. And if there currently aren't any ways in which you, yourself, might be bizarre and noteworthy, maybe you should become an orchid collector.

Because orchids are pretty damn awesome.(less)

like · see review

May 16, 2013 Joanne Albertsen rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book was a lot of fun -- part romp, part character sketches, part travelogue, and part history of the rise of Western orchid mania, all interspersed with a wide array of fascinating historical and scientific snippets. The author is a tourist in these worlds but a genuinely curious, appreciative, and respectful tourist. She digs beneath the already strange surface to unearth relationships, history, and even science that enriches this tale of eccentric orchid maniacs, one in particular. She g...more

like · see review

Mar 09, 2012 David rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Orchid collectors, real estate investors

Shelves: audiobook, contemporary, crime, female-author, non-fiction, biology, science, florida

You could summarize The Orchid Thief as "Florida is a crazy place, y'all." It's one of the better non-fiction books I've read recently, starting with a scheme by John Laroche, a not-precisely-likeable but still very interesting fellow whom the author interviews and follows around in the course of writing her book, but delving into Victorian orchid cultivation (they had no idea how to grow orchids, especially in England, but they were mad about them) and flower genetics, Florida endangered specie...more You could summarize The Orchid Thief as "Florida is a crazy place, y'all." It's one of the better non-fiction books I've read recently, starting with a scheme by John Laroche, a not-precisely-likeable but still very interesting fellow whom the author interviews and follows around in the course of writing her book, but delving into Victorian orchid cultivation (they had no idea how to grow orchids, especially in England, but they were mad about them) and flower genetics, Florida endangered species laws, and Florida real estate.

Orchid collectors, apparently, get really, really obsessed. I can understand this, as I know some people who are into dog and cat shows, and that whole scene is just as silly and obsessive. Orchids, of course, are easier to cultivate and breed for highly specific characteristics, so there are thousands of species and subspecies, and collectors are basically engaged in competitive orchid breeding. Some people will pay thousands for a single plant, and successful orchid breeders who have a popular strain are frequently subjected to break-ins and thefts. There is much drama at orchid shows, people flinging accusations (like claiming you've bred a new strain that was actually smuggled from Thailand) and threats, and meanwhile, poachers can make a good living stealing rare orchids out of protected Florida wetlands for breeders. (They also poach frogs, birds, trees, and pretty much anything else that's endangered and therefore valuable.) This has been going on for over a hundred years; the Victorians had their own "orchid bubble" and they hired people to go to Florida or South America to collect specimens for them.

Most everything in this book centers on Florida, though, and so Susan Orleans goes beyond orchids talking about all kinds of other schemes Florida has been subjected to. There is the long-running saga of the Seminole tribe, an Indian tribe that owned slaves and sided with the Confederacy but whose slaves were pretty much tribe members. The Seminoles were the first tribe to get rich off of casinos, so they are pitched all sorts of business deals by everyone from Donald Trump to Japanese investors. Orleans talks quite a bit about James Billie, the current and former chief of the Seminoles, including his trial for shooting an endangered Florida panther.

There is also a chapter about the infamous Gulf American Land Corporation, which made "Florida swampland" so famous as a real estate scam. They sold thousands of plots of land to working class people, military personnel, etc., as affordable retirement investments. Many of these people never even visited the land they'd bought and so were unaware that more likely than not you needed a boat to reach it. Gulf American was still in operation up until 1970, and the plots are still there - a few people actually moved into the "development" area and live there still, without electricity or telephones or anything else. Crazy people, y'all.(less)

2 likes · like · see review

Apr 29, 2009 Caitlin Constantine rated it 5 of 5 stars

I adore this book. It's one of my favorites, not just because it's about two of my favorite things - plants and Florida - and not just because it's by one of my favorite writers, and not just because Charlie Kaufman made it into a totally kick-ass movie.

I adore it because it's so charming, because of sentences like "I suppose I do have one unembarrassing passion: I want to know what it feels like to be passionate about something," because Orlean writes about her human subjects with a bit of "Ca...more I adore this book. It's one of my favorites, not just because it's about two of my favorite things - plants and Florida - and not just because it's by one of my favorite writers, and not just because Charlie Kaufman made it into a totally kick-ass movie.

I adore it because it's so charming, because of sentences like "I suppose I do have one unembarrassing passion: I want to know what it feels like to be passionate about something," because Orlean writes about her human subjects with a bit of "Can you believe this craziness?" without losing sight of the fact that she is actually writing about humans, and because she has this gift for uncovering those odd little tidbits of information that make the world seem like a magical place where anything is possible.

This is one of those books that, while purporting to be about one thing - the world of orchid fanciers - is really about another thing - obsession. The book takes the idea that the best way to see the universe is through a microscope, and wraps it up in an entertaining package. She also tells the stories using a tactic that another favorite writer of mine, Joan Didion, uses, where she herself is a character in the book, not just as a narrator but a participant, and it gives you, as an outsider in the story, a way to view things as if you were there yourself. Yet you don't get the feeling she's casting judgement on anyone; you just get to see things the way she saw them and feel the things she felt.

Of course, the book might also hold a special place with me because it talks so much about Florida, a state whose history and culture can only be described as "bizarre." (I hate that word almost as much as I hate the word "unique" but really, there is no other way to describe it.) This state attracts people who are looking to realize some sort of dream or other, or who are looking to reinvent themselves, or who are just trying to escape their pasts, and so you end up with a bunch of people all trying to create some new existence on a piece of land that is constantly in flux. It's a tumultuous, chaotic state, where people are free to extend their personalities to the limit, whether its through Christianity or vulgar materialism or alcoholism or whatever. The only thing predictable about Florida is that, if something crazy happens, it's probably happening here. So I love reading about Florida - nonfiction and fiction alike - for these reasons, and I think few have captured that essential quirkiness of the state better than Orlean did with this book. (less)

1 like · like · see review

May 21, 2013 Jeremy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-waiting-review

What a lovely book, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this, probably because of the terrific descriptions of the Everglades, the Fakahatchee Strand and parts of Florida that most people have never heard of - but which I have had the benefit of living amongst. I was warmed by the reference to Fort Myers (although, and rather annoyingly, it is spelt Meyers in the book repeatedly. Not the only unforgivable misspelling either) and intrigued by the potted history of Cape Coral. I knew most of what the Ros...more

like · see review

Jan 16, 2011 Katie Lynn rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Hmmm. Not what I expected at all. I think I liked it. I know I liked the writing itself and the subject was interesting on a surface level and as a deeper commentary on individual and societal quirks. I think because I was expecting something more narrative as opposed to allegorical, it felt like it dragged a bit.

"I'm actually pretty tough. I've run a marathon and traveled by myself to weird places and engaged in conversations with a lot of strangers, and when my toughness runs out I can rely on...more

like · see review

Feb 18, 2009 Flissy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2008

I actually finished reading The Orchid Thief while ago and totally forgot to blog about it.

I saw the movie Adaptation, which was inspired by the book, and as a result, I had no idea what to expect from the book, because if you've seen it, you'll know the movie is pretty bizarre! The book is also a bit odd, but in a totally different way.

This is a sprawling story of the schemes of John Laroche and the nature of the orchid business. All sorts of anecdotes and explorations are draped around the Lar...more

like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 99 100 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Key West Library: One Island One Book 2013: The Orchid Thief	2	5	Mar 07, 2013 12:20pm
Adaptation	4	18	Jul 19, 2011 01:31pm

combine
Other Editions (15)

More editions...

Videos About This Book

Add a comment

1 comment

Genres

Non Fiction

285 users

Book Club

32 users

Science

25 users

Biography

25 users

History

21 users

Autobiography > Memoir

18 users

Crime > True Crime

15 users

Environment > Nature

15 users

Writing > Journalism

12 users

Mystery > Crime

11 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

About Susan Orlean

I'm the product of a happy and uneventful childhood in the suburbs of Cleveland, followed by a happy and pretty eventful four years as a student at University of Michigan. From there, I wandered to the West Coast, landing in Portland, Oregon, where I managed (somehow) to get a job as a writer. This had been my dream, of course, but I had no experience and no credentials. What I did have, in spades...more

More about Susan Orlean...

Books by Susan Orlean

The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup: My Encounters With Extraordinary People

My Kind of Place: Travel Stories from a Woman Who's Been Everywhere

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About The Orchid Thief:...

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

Quotes from The Orchid Thief

“I suppose I do have one embarrassing passion- I want to know what it feels like to care about something passionately.” — 11 people liked it

“I don't like hiking with convicts carrying machetes.” — 7 people liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession
avg rating	preview: The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession Goodreads rating: 3.65 (5692 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/228345.The_Orchid_Thief?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328347217l/228345.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/228345.The_Orchid_Thief?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession by Susan Orlean[/url]

The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website