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by: Janet Fitch
List Price: $13.99Amazon.com's Price: $11.19 You Save: $2.80 (20%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780316284950
ISBN: 0316284955
Label: Back Bay Books
Manufacturer: Back Bay Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 480
Publication Date: May 01, 2000
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Sales Rank: 10163
Studio: Back Bay Books
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
'Oprah's Book Club(r) May 1999 Selection Astrid is the only child of a single mother, Ingrid, a brilliant, obsessed poet who wields her luminous beauty to intimidate and manipulate men. Astrid worships her mother and cherishes their private world full of ritual and mystery-but their idyll is shattered when Astrid's mother falls apart over a lover.
Deranged by rejection, Ingrid murders the man, and is sentenced to life in prison. White Oleander is the unforgettable story of Astrid's journey through a series of foster homes and her efforts to find a place for herself in impossible circumstances. Each home is its own universe, with a new set of laws and lessons to be learned. With determination and humor, Astrid confronts the challenges of loneliness and poverty, and strives to learn who a motherless child in an indifferent world can become. Tough, irrepressible, funny, and warm, Astrid is one of the most indelible characters in recent fiction. White Oleander is an unforgettable story of mothers and daughters, burgeoning sexuality, the redemptive powers of art, and the unstoppable force of the emergent self. Written with exquisite beauty and grace, this is a compelling debut by an author poised to join the ranks of today's most gifted novelists.'
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
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - good book
It's a nice interesting read with a good unique story. I liked it a lot.
Rating: - A well-crafter exploration of a girl growing up hard in the system
I read the Kindle version of this, but the text is the same, so that probably doesn't matter.
White Oleander the story of a young girl named Astrid Magnussen with a mother who is...unique. If I'm being kind. A terribly sociopathic pretentious abuser would be a more accurate description. Her mother is a poet, or fancies herself as one, and lives life on a level that her skill, fame and money cannot support. None of that matters, and neither does her daughter. If her daughter can ... Read More
Rating: - White Oleander
I read this novel a decade ago and this well-written story and all the myriad real-life issues it canvasses stays with me still fresh. I'd recommend it to anyone.
Rating: - So beautifully written...
I've read this book several times. I read it at least once a year. It is so beautifully written. It's an amazing story and Janet Fitch tells it so well. No matter how many times I've read it before, I just can't put the book down.
Rating: - Fantastic!
A moving story about a daughter thrust into "the world" as her mother is thrust into prison. A story about finding yourself, finding help, finding your way, and finding your will.
Well thought out character scenarios and character personalities. Incredibly well written. Highly intelligent narration by Astrid. Although naive in some instances, she's incredibly intelligent for her age and situation.
Makes you wonder about your own situation, who shaped you 'whether loving ... Read More
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