This book was an escape from my usual paranormal smut and urban fantasy adventures, and it is so worth the change in scenery. I had to read the book for my Vulnerable Children class, where I am learning about the child welfare system. It was a poignant tale of one girl’s tumultuous journey through the foster care system and will no doubt leave your jaw hanging on many occasion. As a human being, you will be horrified at the life that Astrid must endure after her mother is sent to prison for murder. And Astrid’s mother, Ingrid, is one of the most complex characters I’ve ever read. You will want to reach through the pages to ring her neck all the while experiencing sadness over her situation.I was sickened by how Astrid was treated by these foster parents. They destroyed her innocence. Astrid reached out for love and was constantly slapped in the face, except for a few encounters that introduced this young lady to love and evil, themes that are very interconnected in this story. I was also sickened at the role of the social workers in this book! They treated Astrid like shit and I am horrified at the thought of a real social worker acting this way. Janet Fitch’s writing is downright magical, poetic and intoxicating. I felt every hunger pang, every yearning for some semblance of normalcy, every embarrassing, depressing and desperate moment, every let down, every heart break, every smile, every relationship that was real and the many that were not. The book is raw and leaves your breathless.Most of you have probably heard of this movie, which I watched recently, and thoroughly enjoyed. However, with any book, your imagination is always better, and in the case of this book, your heart breaks even more intensely. The ultimate reality of this book is that Astrid’s myriad of foster home experiences is an unfortunate common theme amongst foster children. This book is one story out of thousands that we have not heard. However, If you are up for a change of scenery, and a story that will steadily tug at your heartstrings, all the while filling you with hope that resiliency is real and can save someone, then take a dive into this book, head first. Notable Quotes"I wondered why it had to be so poisonous. Oleanders could live through anything, they could stand heat, drought, neglect, and put out thousands of waxy blooms. So what did they need poison for? Couldn't they just be bitter? They weren't like rattlesnakes, they didn't even eat what they killed. The way she boiled it down, distilled it, like her hatred. Maybe it was a poison in the soil, something about L.A., the hatred, the callousness, something we didn't want to think about, that the plant concentrated in its tissues. Maybe it wasn't a source of poison, but just another victim.""And I tried not to make it worse by asking for things, pulling her down with my thoughts. I had seen girls clamor for new clothes and complain about what their mothers made for dinner. I was always mortified. Didn’t they know they were tying their mothers to the ground? Weren’t chains ashamed of their prisoners?""I know what you are learning to endure. There is nothing to be done. Make sure nothing is wasted. Take notes. Remember it all, every insult, every tear. Tattoo it on the inside of your mind. In life, knowledge of poisons is essential. I've told you, nobody becomes an artist unless they have to.""That was the thing about words, they were clear and specific-chair, eye, stone- but when you talked about feelings, words were too stiff, they were this and not that, they couldn't include all the meanings. In defining, they always left something out.""And I realized as I walked through the neighborhood how each house could contain a completely different reality. In a single block, there could be fifty separate worlds. Nobody ever really knew what was going on just next door.""I felt like an undeveloped photograph that he was printing, my image rising to the surface under his gaze."
This book is the tale of a girl with a warrior poetess for a mother. When her mother kills a boyfriend and is imprisoned the girl is thrown into California's foster care system. There she experiences ignorance, abuse, and need, and love in equal measure, and tries to grow up, while struggling with her anger with her mother for abandoning her. Orphans generally make sympathetic protagonists. One can't help but hope things will get better for someone who has lost everything, who is at the bottom of every pecking order. In this book, we care especially for Astrid, the protagonist, because she has to battle the overbearing personality of her mother. Also, it turns out that Oliver Twist may have had it better than the modern day foster kid. Astrid is old for her age, able to see people's motivatioin. Much of this she learned from her mother. She is also an artist, and the narration reflects this sense for people and eye for detail. The physical impact of characters, their beauty, and their sex and their ugliness and their weakness are all described with detailed realism. Houses and rooms are described in terms of cultural milieu, and their impact on the narrator's mood. The effect is that this is a book that one feels one has lived in, rather than read. The characters are not fictions, but old acquaintances. The characterization also is strikingly good. So read this book. If you don't like it, you shouldn't read, it's an insult to books for them to have you read them.
What do You think about White Oleander (2001)?
I can't forget her story. It's like a precise etching tatooed on the center of my brain. Her pain is my pain, her fears are my fears, her life...becomes mine. I take every word from her illustrated existance, using it as my own bible to crawl through this enraged wilderness where the grass is made of needles, the trees are crawling with serpants, and the water is too tanged to drink.... I taste the saltiness of her tears as they stream down her face, burning, leaving behind scars of inevitable pain. I feel every emotion that blisters her soul. I look deep into her eyes and see the rips in her heart. I touch the engravements on her thoughts. Astrid...I'll never forget your story. I first read this book when I was seventeen for an advanced writing course and it touched some part of me so deeply that I wrote this passage in my journal about it. Since then I've read this book countless times. The story never gets old and the writing is always refreshing. Simply put: The most beautiful piece of fiction I've ever read. Janet Fitch has a truly authentic writing style that incorporates soft hues of poetry into the story. This book will remain on my shelf FOREVER!!!
—Nateah
One of my most favorite novels ever. I have read this one twice. Something I don't normally do. This story of Astrid and Ingrid is really touching to me because Ingrid is selfish just like my own mother. Only, my mother is not in prison. However, my mother is very much like Ingrid in her selfish ways. Did I just say that? I think I did.Digressing....the things Astrid has to go through to finally find happiness are really terrible, but, I think in the end, they were worth it for her. I think Astrid realized who was really real, meant well, and found who she could really trust. I don't want to give anything away about this story, and DON'T cheat and watch the movie first....even though the cast was a-mazing. BUT, the movie doesn't fully capture Astrid and her story, and what all she went through to get to the end. Just so beautiful, amazing, and heartbreaking all at the same time.
—Kathryn
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. Then I became Astrid, and I felt how much she loved her and how bad it hurt to also hate her, but hate Ingrid I did! I would walk away from long reading sessions feeling hardened and detached. It's not an easy read, but I find literature that can make me feel so strongly well deserving of praise. The words were like a sad song. I connected with them so much that they became the theme song of my life for days. "The phoenix must burn to emerge." I love that Astrid found love at the end and I loved seeing how her past formed her into who she was. I too have been burned by a lost childhood, and spent a lot of time while reading this crying for myself. Life makes you or breaks you. I too, am a survivor. This book will rip your heart apart, and then put it back together again stronger than it was before._______________________________________________________________________
—Christina White
