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White Oleander

by Janet Fitch (Goodreads Author)

3.79 · rating details · 65,697 ratings · 2,895 reviews

Everywhere hailed as a novel of rare beauty and power, White Oleander tells the unforgettable story of Ingrid, a brilliant poet imprisoned for murder, and her daughter, Astrid, whose odyssey through a series of Los Angeles foster homes-each its own universe, with its own laws, its own dangers, its own hard lessons to be learned-becomes a redeeming and surprising journey of...more

Paperback, 446 pages

Published May 1st 2000 by Back Bay Books (first published 1999)

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Community Reviews

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Nov 26, 2007

Jessica rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: secret members of oprah's book club

Shelves: crazy-ladies, chicklits, california-über-alles

There must be a reason why I've been able to recall many of the books I've read over the years, but that it took me until one of my most restless and procrastibatory nights in front of the blank Word doc to dredge this one up from the recesses of memory, even though I read it within the past year or two.

I'm pretty sure I know what that reason is, too: it's because on some level I'm embarrassed that I read this book, and that I actually really liked it.

I'm pretty sure I kn...moreThere must be a reason why I've been able to recall many of the books I've read over the years, but that it took me until one of my most restless and procrastibatory nights in front of the blank Word doc to dredge this one up from the recesses of memory, even though I read it within the past year or two.

I'm pretty sure I know what that reason is, too: it's because on some level I'm embarrassed that I read this book, and that I actually really liked it.

I'm pretty sure I know where that embarrassment comes from, too: it's rooted in some pretty deep-level misogyny and discomfort about my most womany womanliness, or something like that anyway....

This book is the most Oprahiest Book Clubby selection I've ever read in my life. It's also the most estrogened-out, hyper-womany fiction I can even begin to think of. All the criticisms and stereotypes I (and a lot of you) hold about lady lit are present here, by the bundle: poetic, even overwrought language; melodramatic plotting; over-the-top characters; vivid, sensual description; almost fetishistic focus on sex, sexuality, and relationships.... aw, crap, I don't even know what my dreadful vestigial stereotypes about women's fiction are, only I'm 10,000% sure this book fulfilled all of them. It's called WHITE FUKKIN OLEANDER, for PETE'S SAKE!!!

Here's where the internalized misogyny comes in, of course, because WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THAT??? This book was far from perfect, there are some valid and gender-neutral criticisms I have of it, but it was good, and I enjoyed it, and the fact is that I apparently find this somehow embarrassing, and on some level must think I should really be digging on Chuck Palahniuk or Ernest Hemingway or that guy who writes those series books about old-timey sailing ships that middle-aged men love so much.... Like that is way more respectable or something. ARGH!!! Have all these thousands of dollars and book-hours spent on feminist indoctrination been for naught??? I ENJOYED WHITE OLEANDER! Yes, of course it did get a bit too silly for me at times, but on the whole I THOUGHT IT WAS A PRETTY GOOD STORY!

Okay, it was melodramatic, but that's part of what made it good. It's about this blonde shorty with a crazy, really horrid white witch of a psycho blonde poet mother, who is scorned by this chumpy-seeming LA cheeseball in a Hawaiian shirt, and hell hath no fury like a psycho poet lady, the mom kills guy, goes to prison, blah blah blah.... So the kid, Astrid -- or maybe Ingrid? -- I forget -- winds up in foster care, and the book is her bouncing around from LA foster home to foster home and experiencing, as my own mother put it, all these different types of moms.

Like Push, another book I need to review, there are moments you cannot believe the author was able to type with a straight face. You're like, "NO, come ON, this is RIDICULOUS! You can't POSSIBLY make ANOTHER outlandishly bad thing happen to this poor defenseless character! Pull yourself together Janet, I CAN'T take this seriously." Like at one point the girl gets attacked by a dog, and I actually started laughing. BUT NONE OF IT IS MORE RIDICULOUS THAN JUDE THE OBSCURE, WHICH WAS NOT, LAST TIME I CHECKED, PART OF OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB. LADY WRITERS DO NOT HAVE A MONOPOLY ON THIS KIND OF PATHOS!

Anyway, I liked this book. I can't believe I'm so defensive about it! I must really have issues. But does anyone else on here know what I mean? I noticed that NONE of my friends have read this book, which makes me wonder whether there are others among us who have somehow "forgotten," as I had myself, until I sat down tonight to write a paper.

BTW, I tried reading part of this years ago, when the author visited my college writing class (she had gone to my school), and I couldn't choke it down that first time. BUT, Ms. Fitch did tell a good story about Oprah calling her personally to say she was in the book club, which I won't repeat here because... I have run out of characters.(less)

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Jan 15, 2008

Matt rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: sad girls

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 psycholog...morethis 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.(less)

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Apr 25, 2010

Aths / Athira (Reading on a Rainy Day) rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2010, list-oprah, fiction, f-literary

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 (si...more

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Jun 10, 2007

Michael rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary_fiction

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.

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Aug 18, 2007

Niya rated it

· review of another edition

This is my all time favorite book. I love the character Astrid, and enjoyed seeing her played by Alison Lohman in the movie. I wish there were more books like this one.

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Jan 16, 2008

Faith-Anne rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: my-favorites, modern-literature

If nothing else, read this book for the language. White Oleander reads like a poem. It's so beautifully crafted.

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Feb 16, 2008

Nateah rated it

· review of another edition

I can't forget her story. It's like a precise etching tatooed on the center of my brain. Her pain is my pain, her fears are my fears, her life...becomes mine. I take every word from her illustrated existance, using it as my own bible to crawl through this enraged wilderness where the grass is made of needles, the trees are crawling with serpants, and the water is too tanged to drink....
I taste the saltiness of her tears as they stream down her face, burning, leaving behind scars of i...more

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Jun 28, 2007

Logan rated it

Shelves: fiction

I am normally exceedingly wary of anything that Oprah puts her mark on and avoid it like the plague. However, after years of being recommended this book by many people who's opinions on such things I respect I finally pulled it off the bookshelf. Let me be the first to tell you: I have never been more appreciative of my friends. This book was phenomenal!

Following the trials and tribulations of one Astrid Magnusson, the book takes you first from her idyllic life with her poet/ic...more

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Sep 03, 2008

Shep Trott rated it

· review of another edition

This book is the tale of a girl with a warrior poetess for a mother. When her mother kills a boyfriend and is imprisoned the girl is thrown into California's foster care system. There she experiences ignorance, abuse, and need, and love in equal measure, and tries to grow up, while struggling with her anger with her mother for abandoning her.

Orphans generally make sympathetic protagonists. One can't help but hope things will get better for someone who has lost everything, who is...more

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Feb 20, 2008

Bonnie rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, abandoned

After hearing so much about this Oprah-acclaimed book, I finally sat down to read it. The plot had some major potential and I was getting really interested, right when the protagonist landed in a horrible foster home where she began an illicit affair with her foster mom's 40-year-old boyfriend (did i mention the main character is about 14?). The author vividly describes the sexual details of this relationship, as well as the mom and boyfriend's bedroom behaviors. If that wasn't enough, the day t...more

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Aug 26, 2008

Kelly rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: enemies

Recommended to Kelly by: Oprah

Shelves: smarty-pants, audiobook

I only wish there were a star less than one. I wish I could remove stars. I wish there were a star deficit rating.

This book almost made me give up reading all together. It is definitely the last book I trusted from Oprah. I still think she owes me money and those days of my life back.

It was page after page of the most depressing writing I've ever read with absolutely no pay off.

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Jan 03, 2012

Xavier Guillaume rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: those not afraid to cry

Recommended to Xavier by: Rahdne

White Oleander. Oleander is a beautiful flower. It's whiteness suggests a pure, innocent quality, but it is anything but innocent. Oleander is an extremely poisonous plant, and it works as a good symbol of Astrid's mother Ingrid. Ingrid is extremely beautiful, blonde, pale, tall, graceful. She makes men's heads turn. But she is also wrathful, manipulative, and a murderer. It's hard to see the good in Ingrid, but this book is so complex that the lines between good and bad blur.

What is...moreWhite Oleander. Oleander is a beautiful flower. It's whiteness suggests a pure, innocent quality, but it is anything but innocent. Oleander is an extremely poisonous plant, and it works as a good symbol of Astrid's mother Ingrid. Ingrid is extremely beautiful, blonde, pale, tall, graceful. She makes men's heads turn. But she is also wrathful, manipulative, and a murderer. It's hard to see the good in Ingrid, but this book is so complex that the lines between good and bad blur.

What is known is that this book describes a desire to be loved. It's that clinging sensation humans feel to reach out and be touched and held and loved. Then there is the never-ending pain. Astrid learns that living equals pain, a pain that comes to her no matter where she goes. In some instances she seeks it. In some instances it just happens. But there is this strange relationship between Astrid and Pain. It's like she doesn't want to live in it, but she doesn't know any other way. Because of that, she identifies with her pain, and so, her misery and her self become inseparable.

It's interesting that the book can be so beautiful at times but then describe such gruesome, tragic events. There are some instances of the book that are downright disgusting if one stops to think about them. Yet it's how Astrid narrates her story, which causes the book to not feel as disgusting as one might expect to feel. It's slightly hard to explain. It reminds me of a starving, anorexic girl with pale skin, and bones sticking out of her arms and ribs. It's gruesome. It's tragic. But Astrid sees some deeper truth in that girl. It's like there is beauty and understanding, and tragedy mixed in with hope. Like I said, this book is entirely complex.

It's very intriguing how Astrid views the world. She sees beauty in the weeds, perhaps because she feels like a weed. She feels unwanted, and with reason because she is treated so horribly. Not many good things happen to her. Not many happy moments exist in this book. They do exist, but they're like gems hidden in broken shards of glass and one has to cut oneself a hundred times before one can find them and hold onto them, and only for a moment, where they have to be cast away just because that's the way the world works, and one finds oneself walking through the glass all over again.

So, overall, I really liked the book. The diction is really quite marvelous. Every sentence has a way about it, that lets you feel the emotions that Astrid feels. And the book really encompasses every emotion of the human spectrum. There is pain, and regret, and misery, and hope, and love, and fear, and despair, and paranoia, and disgust, and self-loathing, and confusion, and there is all these things, and in the end there is understanding, or at least a coming to an understanding, which is a nice change to the dark tempo of the novel.

Would I recommend this book? Most definitely. It has a special character to it. In other words, it is a unique book that one can also get lost in. The tragedy is not in your face, it is just like, art that is placed in front of you and is saying, "Here I am. Look at me. Observe. What do you see? What do you feel?" That's what it is. And like how art can be interpreted in so many ways, this book can be too. There are hidden truths in here. This book almost screams TRUTH! It's hard for me not to see it; it's hard for me not to feel it. So, it is 4 stars. I think it could have possibly have been 5 stars if I let myself become completely immersed in the novel. If I felt the pain and was right there with Astrid crying with her, it could have been a 5. I just couldn't let myself lose that much control of my emotions. I've felt my share of pain in my life, and I didn't want to feel that, not like how she feels it. So I looked at her story from a distance. Like I was looking at art on a wall. If one were to step into the painting and live through her life there with her, it would be unbearable almost. It would be too much pain. Yet despite being tragic, it really is a marvelous book.(less)

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Mar 10, 2011

Smash rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: book-reviews, chick-lit, fiction, read-2011, own, social-work, tough-issues

This book was an escape from my usual paranormal smut and urban fantasy adventures, and it is so worth the change in scenery. I had to read the book for my Vulnerable Children class, where I am learning about the child welfare system. It was a poignant tale of one girl’s tumultuous journey through the foster care system and will no doubt leave your jaw hanging on many occasion. As a human being, you will be horrified at the life that Astrid must endure after her mother is sent to prison for murd...more

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Apr 09, 2009

Nicola rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, re-read

Is there a book that you hate and yet you can’t stop re-reading? White Oleander is mine. It’s a wrist-slittingly depressing book and Janet Fitch seems to take masochistic pleasure in inflicting pain on her protagonist. In the world of White Oleander, if something can go wrong, it will go wrong.

By rights, when I first read this book, perhaps five years ago, I should have finished it, branded it “beautiful but flawed” and never touched it again. Alas, that is not the case. I’ve re-read...moreIs there a book that you hate and yet you can’t stop re-reading? White Oleander is mine. It’s a wrist-slittingly depressing book and Janet Fitch seems to take masochistic pleasure in inflicting pain on her protagonist. In the world of White Oleander, if something can go wrong, it will go wrong.

By rights, when I first read this book, perhaps five years ago, I should have finished it, branded it “beautiful but flawed” and never touched it again. Alas, that is not the case. I’ve re-read it at least five times since then, coming back to it every year, almost compulsively – usually at a time when I want to wallow in misery (the literary equivalent of playing Elliott Smith’s XO on repeat). I love it. And yet, I hate it.

The pain-magnet protagonist is Astrid, who is 12 when her mother goes to jail, leaving her with no family. Over the next six years, she bounces through a series of foster homes across the Los Angeles area. It’s an unhappy premise to start with and Fitch ratchets up the angst as the novel progresses, as if fearful that the reader will grow bored if something catastrophic doesn’t happen to Astrid every 30 pages. The misery is unrelenting.

The flip side is that the book is utterly captivating. As I’ve said, the story is no surprise to me after multiple readings, and yet I’m still enthralled by every page. Fitch’s prose is a little too flowery for my taste – in her descriptions, she gets it right about 70% of the time, but sometimes her similes become nonsense (for example, tears slide down Astrid’s face like razor blades – what does that even mean?). Nonetheless, she evokes the many facets of the Los Angeles area beautifully. Her continuity is breath-taking – Astrid receives a book of Japanese woodcuts for Christmas (a fact which receives a single line) and then, 50 pages later, she describes a scene in terms of a woodcut, subtly drawing contrast on how much her life has changed since Christmas.

Fitch’s characterisation is a joy. The book is very episodic (which is one of my biggest frustrations with it), but the people that fall in and out of Astrid’s life are never less than lovingly drawn. There is nuance to be found in even despicable characters, and Astrid’s friends and lovers are imbued with warmth and humanity, even when they act unethically. Astrid is a profoundly teenaged protagonist, particularly when she makes ferocious, emotional assertions about people she barely knows – and the way that Fitch often uses this to display unreliable narration is particularly skilfully done.

Truthfully, I love this book. I wish I could give it five stars, but Fitch drowns much of what is lovely about the novel in melodrama. If the story had a better structure (less episodic), a more comprehensive ending and less unnecessary angst, I think it would be a more satisfying read. As it stands, I always feel rather short-changed when I come to the end and put it down.

I know I’ll pick it up again next year, though.(less)

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Sep 07, 2008

Simeon Berry rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, fiction-read, literary, literary-read, literary-fiction, literary-fiction-read

As I was reading this book, I kept thinking, “This really sounds like she’s ripping off Kate Braverman.” So I turn to the interview at the back, and lo and behold, she cites Braverman as a “mentor.” If there were any justice in this universe, Braverman would have received royalties from White Oleander and the resulting movie, because Janet Fitch has appropriated her style, her subject matter, and the mood of her books.

Braverman’s Small Craft Warnings and Squandering the Blue are sh...more

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Jul 10, 2008

Cat rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: escapism, meh

Due in part, perhaps, to the influx of "unfortunate teenage girl" novels in the mid-to-late nineties (I think here of books like _She's Come Undone_ and _The Virgin Suicides_), I avoided Fitch's book for a while (the Oprah's Book Club stigma also contributed). And while the story line did manage to keep me up and at it until 2 am last night, I must say: I'm unconvinced.

Also, spoilers. I don't review books to keep them a secret from people who haven't read them; I review th...moreDue in part, perhaps, to the influx of "unfortunate teenage girl" novels in the mid-to-late nineties (I think here of books like _She's Come Undone_ and _The Virgin Suicides_), I avoided Fitch's book for a while (the Oprah's Book Club stigma also contributed). And while the story line did manage to keep me up and at it until 2 am last night, I must say: I'm unconvinced.

Also, spoilers. I don't review books to keep them a secret from people who haven't read them; I review them to share my opinions with people who have.

The heroine is a supposedly precocious 12?-year-old girl whose mother, jilted, murders her old lover using some pretty romantic and home-remedy style poisons. Astrid, the daughter, worships her mother based (as we find out later in a kind of tangental and almost unnecessary addition to the denouement) on some major abandonment issues. Her mother, Ingrid, a "poet", is wildly self-absorbed and disregards her daughter except when convenient. Fitch's job at the beginning was to show us Ingrid through Astrid's eyes, and while she does a decent job of alluding to some of the disillusionment that begins to blossom when we hit pre-adolescence, she never lays a real foundation for understanding or feeling of Astrid's desperate, almost hysterical attachment to her mother -- Astrid worships her mother's physicality (enormously sensual), her appreciation of aesthetics (somewhat Cali and cliche) and her poetry (just bad, actually).

After the murder, trial and subsequent imprisonment, Astrid is carted off to -- wait for it -- foster care! As the reader of any late 20th century novel knows well, this bodes the beginning of the "real" story. Because foster parents are all just terrible, messed-up people, either in it for the money or to fulfill some other need. Astrid trails destruction and debris through three or four various foster homes, developing complicated and doomed relationships along the way that only serve to reaffirm her abandonment complex. The only sympathetic person of color in the whole story -- a high-priced call girl named Olivia Johnstone who lives an impossibly rich life laced with jazz, jewelery and jet-setting -- establishes one of Astrid's oft-returned-to realities: "It's a man's world". And yet, Fitch riddles the female characters with so many intensely tragic flaws that halfway through the book one can't help but wonder if she's implying that women are too fucked up to make it a woman's world themselves. Each of the female role-models Astrid finds is almost a caricature of some fatal flaw: gluttony, hypocrisy, despair, lust, while the men remain either sensitive and helpless, or are acquitted of their manly appetites simply because they serve as a backdrop to the relationship between Astrid and the female...but if it's a man's world, and women act the way they do because of men, then why is it okay for the men remain unexamined?

Astrid learns the ropes, as the reader might expect, and in the end bargains with her mother to exchange her tweaked testimony (and potentially her mother's freedom) for tidbits about the past. By this time, so much has happened and Astrid has made so many streetwise decisions that it's difficult to see how the plumbing of the depths of her past (especially the whole thing about Annie...like, who cares? Whether Ingrid was there or not, Astrid was emotionally abandoned the whole time) will really resolve any of her conflict. The final result is simply that Astrid should probably see a therapist or five.

Final Pet Peeve: what's all this about California being a palpable presence in the novel? I won't deny that it was, but I've grown more and more conscious of the fact that there are two separate Californias and I have a hard time with LA authors who behave as though the only California is the California south of San Francisco. It just seems very short-sighted to me. (less)

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Apr 21, 2008

Jeanette rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: four-star-fiction, all-fiction

I'm mildly surprised to find myself giving this book four stars, but what can I say? I ended up really liking a lot of things about the story and the author in general. It would be easy enough to go through and pick out all the flaws in the story, but that's already been done.
Astrid's story is engaging, and there are many colorful characters in the book who are quite well-developed considering their short tenure in Astrid's life. The author skillfully uses small details about each char...more

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Jan 11, 2008

Megan rated it

· review of another edition

Recommended to Megan by: Aunt Amy Jane

Shelves: favorites

My aunt bought me this book for Christmas one year and at first I was really disappointed. I thought "Oh, that's nice... because I like to read you just got me the Oprah book club book of the month... thanks." But then I read it, and I'm now convinced that my aunt knows me better than maybe many of my close friends or better than I know myself. Not to be all cheesy and over-identify with something that isn't about me; but this book REALLY hit home for me in describing my relationship w...more

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Sep 03, 2007

Madeline rated it

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Shelves: all-time-favorites

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 thi...more

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Aug 08, 2007

Adrianne Mathiowetz rated it

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I couldn't put this book down for the first half, but the second half really lagged for me. The tragic things that happen to this girl are just too much: I started to feel manipulated into staying interested in it: the plot felt too carefully orchestrated in its horrific developments, like an episode of Ricki Lake or -- dare I say -- Jerry Springer. Just when you start thinking things couldn't get much worse for the protagonist (mom in jail, all possessions lost, sex with foster dad, shot by fos...more

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Aug 20, 2007

Sarah Fisher rated it

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i picked up this book for $5 at borders and thought...hmmm...i'll give it a shot. well, i couldn't put it down. the writing is just incredible, making it easy to get addicted. the writing flows from topic to topic effortlessly. the strength of this book is definitely in the descriptions of the people and places.

the plot on the other hand, while it stays strong through the first half, borders on the ridiculous near the end. the main character is shuffled between foster homes in t...more

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Jan 24, 2009

Alisa Snow rated it

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Do you remember that episode of Friends when Rachel convinces Joey to read "Little Women," and when he gets to the part of the book where Beth gets sick Joey wants to put the book in the freezer? That is totally how I felt while reading this book. Every tragedy that Astrid endured, every foster home she went to that turned out to be less than nurturing, I didn't think I could continue reading and I just wanted to put the book in the freezer! But Fitch's artful storytelling kept me g...more

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Oct 21, 2007

Catherine Lee rated it

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Recommends it for: Females

The character wasn't charming or likable, which was why I removed one star. But the realism of her struggle and the deterioration of various human conditions were strikingly well-written. What she rose above in the end wasn't so much as a victor with the benefit of a revelation, but as a remorseful adult regressing to an evil she can't separate from because she's known it all her life (her mother). And her future seemed to be hindered by her weaknesses, which isn't the love she had for her mo...more

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Feb 01, 2010

Rhonda Rae Baker rated it

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You won't be able to put this one down. A psychological thriller that has many twists and such depth you wonder how anyone could survive and be a normal person.

I was drawn because of the mother-daughter tension and surprised to relate to what was happening because I've known some children manipulated by their parent just as this. It was maddening to see how the mother twisted reality and easy to relate to the daughter who was struggling to find herself amist such deception.

...more

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Aug 29, 2008

Shaindel rated it

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Recommends it for: nearly anyone...

Recommended to Shaindel by: Kimberly True

This is a fast-paced, fun novel.

My BIG problem with White Oleander is that I was working on my novel, got into a graduate program based on the first four chapters, then went to a different grad school for poetry instead, scrapped novel-writing for a while--and then White Oleander comes out, and I thought--Oh. My. God. That's my novel! Not exactly, but enough to be frustrating that someone else did it first. And so well. So I honestly don't know when I'll get over this and finish ...more

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Feb 25, 2009

Amy Pilkington rated it

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My favorite book of all time! Have read it like 12 times. So beautifully written the imagery seeps of the page and echoes in your brain long after you have closed the pages. I know that I am perhaps the only one that notices this but I am deeply enamored with the way Janet (the author, when you have read a book more than a dozen times you get to call the author by their first name) constructs sentences, I can't help but notice her grammar, sentence fluency, and word choice. The way she can wri...more

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Feb 06, 2009

Courtney rated it

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Recommended to Courtney by: a friend

I give this book 2 stars because when I initially read this book in in summer 04 I was in deed 14 and at the time of reading it I was a homeless teenager living on the streets of Santa Ana so in fact I could on some levels identify with this book but after reading it again recently I began to reconsider my views on Astrid. I began to realize that what makes Janet Fitch's work so appealing is the use of metaphors and and the fact that she is very descriptive in her writing which leaves much to th...moreI give this book 2 stars because when I initially read this book in in summer 04 I was in deed 14 and at the time of reading it I was a homeless teenager living on the streets of Santa Ana so in fact I could on some levels identify with this book but after reading it again recently I began to reconsider my views on Astrid. I began to realize that what makes Janet Fitch's work so appealing is the use of metaphors and and the fact that she is very descriptive in her writing which leaves much to the imagination. But upon finishing this book the second time around I realized it was over very over dramatic as if every word, every sentence were to be coming from the mouth of a slowly dying women and shes trying to utter there last words of importance as if life depends on uttering those few lines. I observed many parts in the book to be this way many that were not necessarily dramatic or of any importance and many parts that Ingrid are involved in such as her letters, or as she speaks are treated with such delicate importance that life it self seemed to stop when she spoke. The level of drama that is portrayed in the book, in the characters, in every single sentence is enough to drive you to throw it in the garbage. The only thing that sustains this book from entering the bargain bin is of course its descriptive nature which seems to pull you into the novel itself. The appeal it has to younger girls is simple, Astrid is a very dramatic 14 year old girl as are all teenage girls. when I read this book in 04 I found I could identify with some of the circumstances as I was in fact in a parentless situation in which of course I had to raise myself, but I can say that Astrid's character is a very emotionally disturbed character one of which only brings the novel and its tireless efforts to make her and her mother seem gifted when in fact they belong on some sort of medication, did not hold much appeal the second time around. Fitch writes of the character as is she knows them personally as if she has some sort of secret admiration for their efforts and to think that these characters are fictional leads me to wonder where did Fitch pull the inspiration for these women? I must admit that Fitch (after reading this book of course) holds more appeal as to why she wrote about the characters with such adoration and descriptive nature then the book itself to me.(less)

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Feb 03, 2009

Ashley rated it

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I just got done reading the book called White Oleander by Janet Fitch. It’s an excellent story about a girl named Astrid who moves from foster home to foster home because her mother was sent to prison for the murder of her “boyfriend.” This book is great for people who like to read sad and possibly true stories. My favorite character in the book is probably Astrid’s mother Ingrid. Ingrid is very artsy and poetic, she teaches Astrid lessons and shares the way she thinks strong women should be. I ...more

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Jan 09, 2009

Lesli rated it

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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. A writer should be descriptive, this is true. A writer has the ability to weave colorful, magical webs of imagination, spanning from the far corners of one's mind. Webs that collect adjectives and verbs, perfect choices of letters that, when spun together, create the most descriptive words that are able to transcend the hard barriers of overworked minds. But, my god, Janet, you totally overdid it. Though I was captivated by your writing style, the use of commas at inopportune times, the quotes t...moreA writer should be descriptive, this is true. A writer has the ability to weave colorful, magical webs of imagination, spanning from the far corners of one's mind. Webs that collect adjectives and verbs, perfect choices of letters that, when spun together, create the most descriptive words that are able to transcend the hard barriers of overworked minds. But, my god, Janet, you totally overdid it. Though I was captivated by your writing style, the use of commas at inopportune times, the quotes that I gathered that had sunk into my soul while I read your (extremely long) novel, I was bored by the over-spinning of your creative webs. Colorful as they may have been, what you've done is you've created a web of words so completely intricate, that one is all too easily lost in it, and after a little while, one's only request is to find the way out of it. When I lost my book for those few weeks, at first I was irritated because I don't like to not finish books. But once I found it and began reading where I left off, I was hoping that the main character would either die already, or just say straight to the reader, "you know what? I'm bored with my life as much as you are. How about I stop telling about it and you stop reading it and we just go our own separate ways, mkay?" Alas, my novel did not speak to me. As you can see, Janet, in my mind you unfortunately fall into the category of "people who speak because they like to hear themselves talk". This transcends into writing. Not that I am much of an experienced writer, as I do not have a novel published and you do, and thus, you are perfectly entitled to stick your tongue out at me and tell me to take my opinion and f*ck off. But for all others out there, let me help you all understand this book:

Astrid is twelve when her mother, a selfish, blond, beautiful Norwegian, kills her boyfriend by poisoning him with boiled down, distilled oleanders. Her mother is taken to jail and sentenced to life, and Astrid began her five year trek through numerous foster homes. During this entire process she receives letters from her mother, who, in my opinion is justifiable insane and brilliant at the same time. The relationship with her mother is probably the most interesting part of the book. Her mother is so cynical about life, so stuck on the mentality that life will bite you in the ass so you should always ask what's in it for you. Her mother, a gifted and troubled poet, saves this book by writing letters and making speeches that are so filled with melodious undertones and biting adjectives that reach out from the pages and slice through your skin. Without her correspondence and insights, this book would have been in my good will pile by page 45.(less)

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Dec 31, 2008

Michelle Owens rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2008-read

"Oleander time," she said. "Lovers who kill each other now will blame it on the wind."

Ingird Magnussen is sent to prison for murder and has left behind her daughter, Astrid to be sent into foster care. The story tells of the different foster homes Astrid finds herself in. The different worlds, the different rules, and different lessons.

Throughout the book and through the different families Astird belongs to, one thing is constant. Leaving. While read...more

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About Janet Fitch

Janet Fitch was born in Los Angeles, a third-generation native, and grew up in a family of voracious readers. As an undergraduate at Reed College, Fitch had decided to become an historian, attracted to its powerful narratives, the scope of events, the colossal personalities, and the potency and breadth of its themes. But when she won a student exchange to Keele University in England, where her pas...more

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Books by Janet Fitch

A Writer's Book of Days: A Spirited Companion and Lively Muse for the Writing Life

Tin House Magazine (The Willies Edition) (Volume 2)

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Quotes from White Oleander

“ 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. And 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.” — 599 people liked it

“Always learn poems by heart. They have to become the marrow in your bones. Like fluoride in the water, they'll make your soul impervious to the world's soft decay.” — 231 people liked it

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