About White Oleander
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 self-discovery.
- Complete Title: White Oleander
- Format: Paperback
- Language: English
- Number of Pages: 446
- Publication Time: September 1, 2001
- Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
- ISBN: 0316182540
- ISBN13: 9780316182546
About Janet Fitch
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 passion for Russian history led her, she awoke in the middle of the night on her twenty-first birthday with the revelation she wanted to write fiction. “I wanted to Live, not spend my life in a library. Of course, my conception of being a writer was to wear a cape and have Adventures.” She has acquired a couple of capes since then, and a few adventures. And books.
Her current novels, THE REVOLUTION OF MARINA M. and CHIMES OF A LOST CATHEDRAL paint a portrait of a young poet coming of age during the Russian Revolution. Her last novel PAINT IT BLACK was made into a feature film, available on NETFLIX. Her novel WHITE OLEANDER was an Oprah Book Club pick and made into a motion picture.
Reviews White Oleander
Janet
Well, what was I supposed to rate it? I did work awfully hard on W.O…. still like it. Sad to think Oprah’s book club is all over, it was quite an experience. {n.b.–Oprah Book Club 2.0 is alive and…
Faith-Anne
If nothing else, read this book for the language. White Oleander reads like a poem. It’s so beautifully crafted…
Crumb
This was a masterful yarn about a complex relationship between mother and daughter. It was about the loss of self, the journey of finding oneself, and most importantly – the resilience of the human sp…
Christina White
Dark, depressing, disturbing, and so beautiful! When the author described the August summer heat I felt it, like hot breath on my neck. I fell in love with Ingrid and her beauty and ideas of the world…
Val ⚓️ Shameless Handmaiden ⚓️
Magnificent.Yes. Yes, I am about to pull a basic reader b move by starting off a book review with self-centered commentary on the movie version, but what can I say? I’m a basic b. But anyway. I saw th…
Arah-Lynda
This is Astrid’s story.We meet her first when she is twelve and in Ingrid’s (her mother) care.Ingrid is a woman of such rare, unearthly beauty as to be most likely found in dreams. Fitch describes…
Matt
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)…
Candi
I’ve probably mentioned it here before, but I didn’t much care about movies in the early 2000s. I was too stunned trying to figure out how I went from being a fairly independent, somewhat financia…
Maxwell
I have many thoughts that I’m having trouble putting into words. Before reading the final chapter of the book, I had to put it down, lean my head back against the couch and think about the experience…