White Oleander : A Novel (Hardcover)

by Janet Fitch (Author) "THE SANTA ANAS blew in hot from the desert, shriveling the last of the spring grass into whiskers of pale straw..." (more)
Key Phrases: oleander time, sin virus, turquoise house, Uncle Ray, Joan Peeler, Reverend Thomas (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Oprah Book Club® Selection, May 1999: Astrid Magnussen, the teenage narrator of Janet Fitch's engrossing first novel, White Oleander, has a mother who is as sharp as a new knife. An uncompromising poet, Ingrid despises weakness and self-pity, telling her daughter that they are descendants of Vikings, savages who fought fiercely to survive. And when one of Ingrid's boyfriends abandons her, she illustrates her point, killing the man with the poison of oleander flowers. This leads to a life sentence in prison, leaving Astrid to teach herself the art of survival in a string of Los Angeles foster homes.

As Astrid bumps from trailer park to tract house to Hollywood bungalow, White Oleander uncoils her existential anxieties. "Who was I, really?" she asks. "I was the sole occupant of my mother's totalitarian state, my own personal history rewritten to fit the story she was telling that day. There were so many missing pieces." Fitch adroitly leads Astrid down a path of sorting out her past and identity. In the process, this girl develops a wire-tight inner strength, gains her mother's white-blonde beauty, and achieves some measure of control over their relationship. Even from prison, Ingrid tries to mold her daughter. Foiling her, Astrid learns about tenderness from one foster mother and how to stand up for herself from another. Like the weather in Los Angeles--the winds of the Santa Anas, the scorching heat--Astrid's teenage life is intense. Fitch's novel deftly displays that, and also makes Astrid's life meaningful. --Katherine Anderson

Review
...[an] impressive first novel.... her startlingly apt language relates a story that is both intelligent and gripping. -- The New York Times Book Review, Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina

Janet Fitch writes with breathtaking beauty about the central theme of our age: the search for self. WHITE OLEANDER is a remarkable debut novel. -- Robert Olen Butler, author of A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain

This is what you're after when you're browsing the shelves for something GOOD to read. WHITE OLEANDER is a siren song of a novel, seducing the reader with its story, language, and, perhaps most of all, with its utterly believable (and remarkably diverse!) characters. The narrator is particularly memorable - there were times she made me want to cheer and weep simultaneously. Finishing this book made me feel gratefully bereft, and I look forward to Janet Fitch's next work. -- Elizabeth Berg, author of Durable Goods and Range of Motion

When her passionate poet mother, Ingrid, is jailed for killing her ex-lover (with poison brewed partly from white oleander flowers), Astrid Magnussen navigates her way to adulthood through a series of Los Angeles foster families and juevenile homes. Astrid's strength and resilience makes this compelling novel an inspiration. -- Glamour, April 1999

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 390 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; 1ST edition (May 6, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316285269
• ISBN-13: 978-0316569323
• ASIN: 0316569321
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1,021 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #107,268 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

85 of 93 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome Book!, August 8, 2000

By	N. Hochman (Alexandria, VA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: White Oleander (Oprah's Book Club) (Paperback)

I could not put this book down! "White Oleander" was wonderful from the very first sentence to the very last and I have Oprah to thank for bringing author Janet Fitch to my attention. The story is narrated by Astrid - a teenage girl - who suffers through years of living in the foster care system while her mother Ingrid serves a life sentence for murdering her ex-lover. (I can just envision a younger Angelina Jolie-type playing the role of Astrid in the film version.) Each family that Astrid lives with has its own unique (yet sometimes cliched) cast of characters that are instrumental in shaping and transforming the young woman she becomes. This is a novel of self discovery the hard way. I personally cannot imagine the loneliness and terror that Astrid experienced while bouncing from home to home to home. Ingrid stays present in Astrid's unstable life through letters and occasional visits and their strained relationship is key to Astrid's development. The character are so real, the writing style is beautiful, the plot moves swiftly and the story weaves the reader through every human emotion possible. While I'm not a fan of the Oprah Winfrey show, I am a fan of her book club and this novel ranks up there as one of her best picks.

40 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible, hypnotic, seductive, I couldn't put it down., August 16, 1999

By A Customer

White Oleander simply touched me more than almost any novel I have ever read. Astrid was a realistic character. Anyone who thinks that this novel was extreme and melodramatic in its portrayal of foster care obviously knows nothing of foster care or displaced children from disfunctional homes. Having worked in inpatient psychiatric units with both children and adults in state custody, I am well aware of how realistic Janet Fitch's book was.The things that happened to Astrid happen to children every day in this country. In fact reality is a little worse. The novel also presented the fact that we all recieve blessings and curses from our parents. Ingrid was a sociopath who did whatever she felt like doing regardless of who got hurt. She ruthlessly dominated her child's life "I am your home" and seemed to feel justified in doing so. However she also was a brilliantly educated poet who passed on the gifts that helped Astrid to survive her years in foster care: strength, independence, and a love of learning, a sharp intellect. I saw Astrid as a survivor who was as together as anyone could be after 6 years in foster care. In life, and in White Oleander, there is no happily ever after, and there are always loose ends. Fitch made me laugh and cry with her liquid poetry. A testement to survival.

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Magnificent Piece of Modern Literature, September 10, 2002

By	Tracey A. Nettell (Houston, Texas, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: White Oleander (Oprah's Book Club) (Paperback)

While Oleander is a beautiful and lyrical piece of contemporary literature with a storyline and cast of characters like nothing I have ever read. It is the story of the incredibly complex relationship between a self-absorbed "free spirit" and the daughter who wants nothing more than to be loved unconditionally as a child should be. When Ingrid is jailed for murder, so starts the long and rocky journey of Astrid as she moves from foster home to foster home. Few people will go through in their entire lifetimes what this child experiences throughout her early teenage years. Her journey is difficult but the author keeps her readers engrossed until the very end. This is a wonderful book and I sincerely hope the upcoming movie does it true justice.