The orchid thief in Susan Orlean's mesmerizing true story of beauty and obsession is John Laroche, a renegade plant dealer and sharply handsome guy, in spite of the fact that he is missing his front teeth and has the posture of al dente spaghetti. In 1994, Laroche and three Seminole Indians were arrested with rare orchids they had stolen from a wild swamp in south Florida that is filled with some of the world's most extraordinary plants and trees. Laroche had planned to clone the orchids and then sell them for a small fortune to impassioned collectors. After he was caught in the act, Laroche set off one of the oddest legal controversies in recent memory, which brought together environmentalists, Native American activists, and devoted orchid collectors. The result is a tale that is strange, compelling, and hilarious.
Not a fan of this book. Felt a little disappointed that the subject matter was not as comprehensive as the title leads you to believe. Any why didn't they put a picture of the Ghost Orchid on the cover?
ReplyDeleteIt really should have been called The Making of an Orchid Thief because the book covers just about everything having to do with orchids and says very little about the thief himself. I felt the author didn’t have enough material for a whole book so she grabbed whatever information she could find about the subject and stuck it in there. I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate it and it certainly didn’t make me want to start growing orchids. However, the book is short, it has humor and I found some of the chapters interesting. So if you’re a nonfiction reader or an orchid lover you may want to take a look at it, but borrow it from the library because you don’t need to add this to your collection.
ReplyDeleteI was very unhappy with this book (and I picked it!). I am an avid gardener and while I don't have orchids, I fully understand the obsession/joy aspect of it all and really thought I would enjoy this book. However, when I thought she had a handle on a specific direction to go in, she dropped it and went some place else, leaving no concise conclusion on any of the area's she touched on which I found frustrating. Another book that started as an article in the New Yorker! (Which I didn't find out until I was looking into it before the meet-up). Thanks again to Lori and Elita who helped me faciliate that discussion because of my illness, surgery & hospital stay at the beginning of July!
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