Customer Reviews

Blood Orchid: An Unnatural History of America

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A must read for every American. Imagine that the problems we see every day are not individual issues, but are symptoms of a more global sickness. Bowden challenges the reader to face the truth about our culture, America as we know it is dead, as he says, pick up a newspaper, our obiturary is on every page. Written from the optimistic perspective that a problem identified can be a problem solved, Bowden delivers a powerful contribution to our modern times. A must read.

In the introduction to his 298-page book, Charles Bowden tells us, "I wrote this book because I had a simple, straightforward idea--we've been in a long war and we've lost that war and the war has poisoned us and our ground. If we admit these facts, we might survive. If we don't, it really won't matter if we survive because we will be functionally dead. Pick up any newspaper, our obituary is everywhere on the pages" (p. xiv). Bowden's prose is powerful, prophetic, hallucinogenic, and poetic. Although Bowden is not always easy to follow, he is worth the effort. In BLOOD ORCHIDS, he looks deeply into "the history of America" to discover "our governments are sick and that we are mentally ill and spiritually dead and that all our issues and crises are symptoms of this deeper sickness" (p. 139). After you've experienced this book, read Bowden's more recent BLUES FOR CANNIBALS.

G. Merritt

As the Hammer Orchid seduces its prey with false promises of satisfaction, Charles Bowden draws his readers into his own personal saga of pain with an impressive display of anger and wrath. Multitudes of partially coherent and mostly unrelated images of sex and war are thrown to the reader at a steadily unrelenting pace, leaving one with the choice of either leaving them at the table, or ingesting them wholly and accepting the emotional heartburn that will accompany the feast. For those who choose the path of greater resistance, the rewards will follow. A highly recommended but particularly difficult read, intended for those with a passionate devotion to nature, man, history and their shared bonds.

Blood Orchid is a work that defies categorization, it is as much a history of America as it is a piece of philosophy. Bowden writes in his introduction, "I have clocked 7,000 miles by truck in the last thirty days and I am hunkered in a motel room high in the Rocky Mountains and yet no nearer to God." Nor to a concrete point either it would seem. Bowden writes about war, and how we go about perpetuating our own destruction through it. It is in this social critique that I see Bowden's rant moving with a purpose. That purpose is to reveal life for what it really is, and he does so successfully. Blood Orchid is a piece of philosophy of life, albeit a fairly depressing one, Bowden writes about life as we have made it, and in that does an excellent job.

I'd be lying if I said this was an easy read, but Bowden warns the reader from the beginning that he travels fast. The subject matter is more than brutal and disturbing. It is enough to make you regret that you are a human being, but I am not sure that Bowden's goal is too make you feel hopeless. In many ways he is optimistic about the future in spite of the bloody past he graphically offers to the reader. He wants to move beyond explaining the past because as he says, "What is explained can be denied but what is felt cannot be forgotten." It would be impossible to read this book and not feel something, but the bigger sin in Bowden's eyes would be forgetting what you felt. The rawness and 85 mph pace of the prose alone makes this a difficult book to forget, but the subject matter and content moves you to question the deeper issues that plague a society that has forgotten how to feel, how to love, and how to live. I found portions of the book difficult to grasp and the book is mentally and emotionally exhausting in many ways. This does not diminish the importance of Bowden's message, but as a reader you need to be prepared to spend some time digesting the material.

Charles Bowden certainly writes a compelling book, full of unforgettable imagery and his strong voice. His take on America's unsettling history is a huge step away from idealized grammerschool fables that many of us have been raised with, yet necessary if one is to understand world politics and America's place in them. Although frank and disturbing in some sections, Bowdens book is a very powerful read for someone looking for another persective on America. I would only recommend this book for those with strong nerves and a stong stomache. For those people it is a great book, for others, happy with a "sunshine" image of America, it would be better to pass on this title.

Charles Bowden's "Blood Orchid" saturates his readers with honest,stream of consciousness reality from the depths of his cynical,twisted mind.Graphic sexual references hide around every corner tempting readers to find out what is this guy up to.Injections of candid truths relating Charles Keating are fascinating forays into our economic standards and the monsters created by a free market society.Stories don't get more brutal that this without real blood.A good read for those that understand their own capabilities,limitations,and appreciate the ugly potential of being human.Dostoyevsky would have been proud.

Charles Bowden's book Blood Orchid presents the twisted almost horrifying story of America's sordid past using the Blood Orchid as an extended metaphor to illustrate the self-destructive nature in American excess, pollution, materialism and even sexuality. Comparisons have been drawn between Bowden and Jack Kerouac, but where Kerouac's stories aspire toward Dharma, Bowden's is more Hell-bent. His writing lacks the optimism of Kerouac's but possesses an inherent wisdom and although his message of destruction is foreboding, it is a timely one. In light of recent events, this book should be required reading for anyone whose patriotism has blinded them to the faults of the American way of life.

I have loved the essays I have read by Charles Bowden individually. Whether disturbing or provocative, he grabs you somewhere deep and won't let go. In a full length book, it is feeling too intense for me. The themes of our destruction of the earth and our intransigencies in our history keep returning and returning like the tide. As does the metaphor/image of the orchid. I didn't get very far into the book, I confess. I think I will have to let this one mellow on the bookshelf for a few years or a decade. Maybe then I will be angry enough to feel with along with it, or otherwise patient enough to let it come to me.

We are blood orchids, accordign to Charles Bowden. We have appetites-- sex, violence, mind-numbing pills. I liked the the last quote at the end of the book-- "Joy to the World." That song says it all. "Never understood a single word he said but I helped him drink his wine." That goes double for Bowden. I don't understand a single word he said (not all, anyway), but I drink his words all the same. Blood Orchid is as mind numbing as anything else. I'm numb after reading it. Maybe as I human orchid, I'm just bleeding.