A True Story of Beauty and Obsession (Ballantine Reader's Circle)

Susan Orlean obviously did a lot of research, which is spewed back at the reader. Sadly, the book is a confused cross between local history and cultural analysis. Reads like an extended version of a lesser New Yorker piece. That said,I did learn how to transport orchids after primary bloom.

Actually, watch Being John Malkovich before you read it and Adaptation (Superbit Collection) afterwards.

Adaptation deals with the problems that Charlie Kaufman, played by Nicolas Cage, had adapting this book into a screenplay. It is remarkably true to the book, and Meryl Streep is wonderful as Susan Orlean.

I read the book after seeing the film, and wish I had done it in reverse order.

Like many other reviewers, I thoroughly enjoyed the book, but have nothing to add to their comments.

I adored Susan Orlean's writing, most especially the descriptive interpretation of the Florida experience, as I have experienced it.
Since the 50's on many different levels. My aunt was in charge of directing 2 camps for girls over the summer. We were all over the place Panama City at the beach had giant scallops so that we harvested them and took them to the cook and we had scallops for dinner. Tampa, camping out in the palmettos with the rattlesnakes, Swan lake, and after I was an adult as well. tThe same exposure to all of the things that she wanted me to see including the Seminole Indians. the dolls that she had, made by the Seminoles were the traditional costumes of patchwork patterns. The bodies were made of coconut palm straw and pine straw. The dresses fell to the floor. Their head-dress was their black hair pulled over a halo-shaped form. The orchid mystery was a bit boring to me, it was as if when I first landed in Jacksonville on my first airplane ever-experience we went to all of the usual places the believe it or not museum ( I was nine, but I knew about Ponce de Leon and the fountain of youth.)We knew from the begining that the ghost orchid was a ghost.

I found myself skipping pages, when Susan Orlean was writing about the different kinds of orchids. The book took on a textbook quality. However, when Olean wrote about the people obsessed with orchids, I could not put the book down. What a crazy and interesting group, these orchid collectors!

I found myself skipping pages, when Susan Orlean was writing about the different kinds of orchids. The book took on a textbook quality. However, when Olean wrote about the people obsessed with orchids, I could not put the book down. What a crazy and interesting group, these orchid collectors!

I am tired of writing what other knows already, so I am just going to cut and paste this version of exciting comment and review to everyone to read and gets the same boring imagination. Yea! Goog! wove it

You could summarize The Orchid Thief as "Florida is a crazy place, y'all." It's one of the better non-fiction books I've read recently, starting with a scheme by John Laroche, a not-precisely-likeable but still very interesting fellow whom the author interviews and follows around in the course of writing her book, but delving into Victorian orchid cultivation (they had no idea how to grow orchids, especially in England, but they were mad about them) and flower genetics, Florida endangered species laws, and Florida real estate.

Orchid collectors, apparently, get really, really obsessed. I can understand this, as I know some people who are into dog and cat shows, and that whole scene is just as silly and obsessive. Orchids, of course, are easier to cultivate and breed for highly specific characteristics, so there are thousands of species and subspecies, and collectors are basically engaged in competitive orchid breeding. Some people will pay thousands for a single plant, and successful orchid breeders who have a popular strain are frequently subjected to break-ins and thefts. There is much drama at orchid shows, people flinging accusations (like claiming you've bred a new strain that was actually smuggled from Thailand) and threats, and meanwhile, poachers can make a good living stealing rare orchids out of protected Florida wetlands for breeders. (They also poach frogs, birds, trees, and pretty much anything else that's endangered and therefore valuable.) This has been going on for over a hundred years; the Victorians had their own "orchid bubble" and they hired people to go to Florida or South America to collect specimens for them.

Most everything in this book centers on Florida, though, and so Susan Orleans goes beyond orchids talking about all kinds of other schemes Florida has been subjected to. There is the long-running saga of the Seminole tribe, an Indian tribe that owned slaves and sided with the Confederacy but whose slaves were pretty much tribe members. The Seminoles were the first tribe to get rich off of casinos, so they are pitched all sorts of business deals by everyone from Donald Trump to Japanese investors. Orleans talks quite a bit about James Billie, the current and former chief of the Seminoles, including his trial for shooting an endangered Florida panther.

There is also a chapter about the infamous Gulf American Land Corporation, which made "Florida swampland" so famous as a real estate scam. They sold thousands of plots of land to working class people, military personnel, etc., as affordable retirement investments. Many of these people never even visited the land they'd bought and so were unaware that more likely than not you needed a boat to reach it. Gulf American was still in operation up until 1970, and the plots are still there - a few people actually moved into the "development" area and live there still, without electricity or telephones or anything else. Crazy people, y'all.

Almost offensively advertised in bookstores, yet I was not intrigued until I saw the film Adaptation, and then I dared to take a peek. To my sheer awe, I was utterly captivated by the words.

Susan Orlean writes beautifully. Her description and characterization of Florida makes it sound more exotic than it really is - a lush, tempting land, entirely swallowed by nature.

There was a lot of material about land deals and orchid thefts, but due to the sheer beauty of Orlean’s writing, not once did I feel the need to glance. I devoured the book. She made me that hungry. I read thoroughly. Her descriptions of orchids are breathtaking. You envision her restraint, though she proclaims she will not purchase a single orchid, you know she is bewitched.

The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean was another recommendation from a friend in terms of a book I would enjoy. And overall, I did enjoy it. Little did I know that a simple flower could have such history and obsession behind it...

This is a true story that covers Orlean's trip to Florida to meet John Laroche, a strange and quirky person who figures as the criminal referenced in the title of the book. Laroche was brought to trial for removing protected plants (orchids) from the Fakahatchee swamp area in Florida, a protected piece of land. He was working with the Seminole Indian tribe at the time, as the land is located on their property. His plan was to get the orchids and start cloning them for sale by the reservation, thereby making "millions" by his estimate. But like many of his quirky plans and schemes, it never quite came to fruition. Orlean follows him around for a period of time, meeting the personalities that make up the orchid world, tramping through swamps up to her waist (and higher in places), and falling in love with the flower that has driven so many people over the years.

The story started off very strong. Her writing is humorous, and Laroche is a character that's easy to laugh at. She captures his bizarre nature and appearance perfectly, and I felt like I knew him quite well by the time the book was done. A large part of the middle portion of the book goes into the history of the orchid along with the history of the people who gave birth to the orchid industry as it is today. That's where I thought things slowed down. The style went from crazy people and interactions to history going back over decades and centuries. While I appreciated the history lessons, it was a noticeable departure from the earlier tone I had expected and enjoyed. It picked back up at the end as she was trying to finish her quest with a sighting of the ghost orchid, and the flavor of the earlier chapters once again emerged.

Overall, it was a good read. And like many good books, my view and perception of the orchid will never quite be the same. I'll appreciate it much more, and wonder what craziness brought that particular flower to that particular time and space.

This is THE book about the ghost orchid in Florida. Susan Orlean is a masterful writer and brings intrigue and color to even the mundane. I never thought I would love a book about orchids so much. It lead me to read other books about the ghost orchid that were very disappointing by comparison. Not only did Orlean tell the story of the ghost orchid, but she added so much depth with the natural history of Florida and background of the European history of orchid collecting. And forget the movie. The book is much better.

This is an interesting book about the obsessions and lengths of the people who love and collect orchids. There are ups and downs in this account.

The story is well told. The main character is John Laroche, a huckster in trouble with Florida authorities for poaching orchids from public lands. Orlean tells Laroche's story, while using it as a springboard to examine the various aspects of the obsession with orchids some people have. There are stories of orchids being stolen from growers, certain strains fetching high prices from foreign buyers, and an obsession bordering on madness in collectors of the flower. There are very few lengths to which collectors and poachers will not go to get their hands on prize orchids.

Laroche himself is a complicated figure. On one hand, he is a criminal who has always tried to come up with get rich quick schemes to avoid working. He has a broken moral compass and thinks nothing of doing things to people not accepted by society. But, Orlean also explores the backstory that made Laroche who he is. We learn of his failed marriages, bad family life, and the crummy luck he has experienced. He comes out as being a complicated character. By the end of the book, I didn't know if I should root for or against him.

The main drawback is that Orlean sometimes goes into too much detail about side issues and minor stories. These digressions take away from the general flow of the book rather than enriching it.

This is a good nonfiction book, especially for those interested in environmental matters.

Orlean, the author of this book, is a journalist, and the novel definitely reads like a journalist wrote it. First of all, there is no real plot line. This is not a story with a beginning, middle, and end. Rather, it reads like a feature story: an in-depth look at Florida and its history, the society of orchid collectors and hunters, and Orlean's own experiences with John Laroche, the orchid thief of the book's title. (The book was actually born out of a story that Orlean wrote for The New Yorker.)

While it can be a bit slow at times, the book offers fascinating insight into several microcosms of Florida. Orlean explores the history of land scheming in the state, the treatment of the Seminole Indians, and the smuggling of plants and animals that occurs in Florida. She also invites the reader to join her in the high-stakes world of orchid collecting, in which one plant might fetch thousands of dollars.

Orlean continually refers back to the passion of orchid collectors, characterizing their affinity for the plants as a type of mania. It was interesting to me, though, that Orlean herself experiences a similar mania - that of reporting. About half way through the book, I noticed that Orlean had gone to ALOT of trouble to write The Orchid Thief. She'd moved down to her parents house in Florida. She was driving all over the state of Florida to plant shows, orchid businesses, growers' fairs, etc. She was slogging through the Florida swamp in increasingly hot and buggy weather. She was spending copious amounts of time with John Laroche, a sometimes-irritating personality at best. It was interesting to me that she herself possessed a kind of mania, but that her mania (reporting/her job) is one that's much more acceptable to society. In other words, if you are in love with your job, fine. But if it's flowers you like, well, you're a little off kilter.

Anyway, I really enjoyed it, and I do recommend it. It can be a little slow in places, but it's worth forging ahead.

The Orchid Thief, by Susan Orleans, discusses the case of John Laroche, a Florida man who was obsessed with orchids. Laroche took protected orchids out of the Fakahatchee Strand, an area of swamp in Florida. Orleans got to know Laroche and other orchid obsessives, and it's an interesting account of their world. Various shonky companies were responsible for the Florida land booms (and busts) which were the prelude to the govt's acquisition of the land of the Fakahatchee Strand. Plots of land were neatly subdivided but never inhabited, and perhaps the most compelling description, for me, was of the curious occurence of desolate suburban streets, complete with street signs, that cut through the wild landscape: a town with neither inhabitants nor homes, but streets maintained by an anonymous individual dubbed the "ghost grader."
There was just a *little* too much detailed description of the "amazing" Florida landscape for my liking, and of Orleans' personal distate when confronted with swamp; you feel like she's just trying to capture how icky it is, but after a while there's a bit of a "so what? it's swamp" effect. Her disappointment that she couldn't buy a diet soda at one remote store fails to pluck at your heartstrings (or mine, anyway). But she does give a really compelling history of the so-called orchidelirium that gripped the Victorians, of rather astounding orchid-collecting expeditions across the tropics, and of the orchid subculture.
Orleans describes Florida as a state under siege -- from water,from plunderers, from wild foliage. I enjoyed this book -- Orleans writes for the New Yorker, and it's like a New Yorker article that never ends, which is my idea of reading heaven.

I started reading this book for the third time when I put it down to read Orchid Fever but I still plan to read it again. I laughed out loud at quite a few parts, mostly those having to do with John LaRoche who comes across as entertaining and someone I would have loved to meet. Aside from LaRoche I enjoyed learning about some other historic orchid collectors and the history of orchid collecting around the world. It really amazed me what some people would do for the love of these plants, especially the ones that take so long between flowering. I mean an orchid in bloom is pretty but what's to love about a some puny and spindly stalks? "To each his own" is what I say to that. I also say go ahead and read the book.

If you think you'll get an idea of what the book is about by renting the movie "Adaptation" which is about a guy (Charlie Kaufman-played by Nick Cage) hired to write a screenplay based on this book. If/when you read the book you will understand that there is no way a screenplay is gonna come outta this here book! The book us just unscreenplayable! Ya hear! So they took some artistic license and bent the story this a-way and that a-way and it was good. Oh and by the way did I mention that Chris Cooper was in the movie? Cooper did an excellent job of capturing John LaRoche. See the movie for Cooper. Oh, Meryl Streep was good as per usual in her role as Susan Orlean.

Let's see..I think that's about it. Read it.

John Laroche's all-consuming passion for orchids has led him into Florida's Fakahatchee swamp and into other such unlikely environments to locate new varieties of this elusive flower. Laroche hoped utilize a laboratory to clone these orchids and develop hybrids that could be mass marketed and make him very wealthy. To carry out his scheme, Laroche becomes an employee of the Seminole Indian tribe, then engages a bunch of them to assist him in his efforts. Laroche believes that because the Seminoles (and he as their employee) live on a reservation they were exempt from state and federal poaching laws. Instead, Laroche and his Seminole employers became targets of various criminal investigations. Laroche earns the name "Crazy White Man" from the Seminoles; this is meant as no compliment.
When Laroche develops an avocation he becomes passionately involved in it to the exclusion of all other interests. After major disappointments and heartaches, Laroche immediately drops this interest, develops a new one and refuses ever to look back.
This non-fiction account of John Laroche's eccentricities and of others who shared his passion, is told by Susan Orlean, a writer for The New Yorker magazine, who often accompanied Laroche on his adventures through the Florida swamps. Orlean, while enjoying an extremely valuable bird's eye view, never becomes personally involved in Laroche's passions. She never becomes a collector of orchids. Orlean is merely our guide (a very competent one at that) and Laroche's eyes and ears, so to speak. Orlean is wonderfully descriptive of the swamps' many varieties of plants and creatures--some quite deadly; as she mentions in the book, the swamp lands are full of life which she endures, if not quite appreciates, every step of the way. Orleans' narrative is overflowing with wit and irony, especially regarding the contradictions in state, federal, and park laws and regulations regarding poaching of indigenous animals and plants. Orleans' research into the history of the Seminole Indians (including some of their past illustrious leaders) and into the world of botony (not exclusively orchids) is thorough, impeccable, and truly amazing. We learn something about the characteristics of the thousands of varieties of orchids. Her occasional lapses into extraneous, and sometimes tedious, historical details may be forgiven. Orlean has written a breezy and very readable book of those passionate and brilliant oddballs who reside on the edges of society.

The Dutch once endured a consuming mania for tulips. Intense competition for bulbs led to bankruptcies resulting from wild speculations, families were disrupted, and fortunes were won and lost. While "tulipmania" subsided, a new mania has arisen. More sedate yet more widespread, orchid collecting is a multimillion dollar business. Orlean portrays the passions involved in orchid collection and breeding in this fascinating work. Unlike tulips, which are limited in species, orchids encompass thousands, with the number of natural species likely doubled by breeder hybridization. Orlean's account depicts the history and business of orchid collecting, identifying and commercialisation. Orchidmania today is only slightly less intense than that of the 17th Century Dutch Republic. Orlean shows that collectors and breeders are highly competitive, aggressive, personalities, ready to engage in whatever is deemed necessary to achieve their goals.
Orlean's fascination with orchids began with the arrest and trial of John Laroche, collector, blackmarketeer and general eccentric. Laroche becomes her pivot point for relating the history of orchid growing and collecting in Florida. She takes us along on her visits to breeders and collectors. She pursues them into Florida swamps and to orchid shows. Everywhere she explores and everyone she meets evokes the same feelings - vigorous competition, unbridled ambition, deep suspicion and a continual skirting with the law. Through all her encounters, Laroche hovers like a malign spirit, sometimes guiding her, sometimes taunting her. She seems captivated by him, his eccentricities simultaneously attracting and repelling her.
This highly personalised account is a compelling read, with Orlean's feelings candidly expressed. The persistence of Laroche becomes, finally, almost tedious. The fascinating history of the orchid industry and the other figures she encounters might easily have displaced him as the central character. His erratic life, with swift changes from one interest to another, might interest a psychologist. Here, LaRoche almost becomes a non sequitor. He might have been dispensed with in a chapter. Orlean, almost unwillingly, remains bound to follow his fate, to whatever end. Her attentions meet indifferent response. They're nearly unrequited. Still, he manages to lead her through the swamps in her new-found quest to locate a particular orchid in the wild. It's not a pleasant journey, but one which she recounts in vivid prose.
Some readers will know this book was the subject of the film, "Adaptation". The film is the story of the story and, in many respects, is a better portrayal than Orlean achieves. There is far too much well-presented information here lacking in the film. That redeems whatever faults Orlean may exhibit in this account. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Subtitled, a "True Story of Beauty and Obsession", The Orchid Thief first came to me in the form of a fascinating "New Yorker" article. Orlean, hooked by a small article in the paper about the theft of some valuable orchids from a Florida greenhouse, travels to Florida and begins the journalistic search for the whole story. Her protagonist is a weird bird named John Laroche who is part-time con artist, part-time 'collector', part-time orchid grower, and full-time nutcase. While Orlean does a fine job of detailing the events of the orchid 'burglery', what is even more fascinating is her take on the entire history of orchid-collecting and growing, of the wild ecology of Florida's Fakahatchee everglade and of a certain amount of history about the Seminole Indians. Like so many of Elmore Leonard's or John D. MacDonald's characters, Florida is rife with con-men, but to see them involved in cons not involving drugs, money, or gold, was a wonderful twist. For someone who generally enjoys a well-written novel, I was captivated by this tale. I agree with whoever said, fact IS weirder than fiction - you can't make stuff like this up!

I first saw the movie 'Adaptation': a film adaptation of the book 'The Orchid Thief.' The movie became, before the end, myopic in that hollwood-filming-itself way that only large budget films with too many contributors can manage. It boils down to who will win in controlling the story: the subject of the book (Laroche), the writer of the book (Orlean), or the screenwriter (played by Nicolas Cage). To make a long story short, the movie was so-so but the orchid descriptions and photos made my wife and I gasp in astonishment. Also, the Laroche character was compelling in an unexplainable way.
So I decided to read the book. The book is non-fiction and thankfully has little to do with the strange plot of the movie. Even if you don't normally read non-fiction, however, you'll like this one as the author uses that fluid, conversational, New Yorker style that pulls you in and delivers interesting anecdotes at just the right times. If you like Updike's writing, you'll enjoy that of Orlean.
The book centers, above all, on the fine line between passion and obsession. This dangerous transition is personified in real-world orchid figure Laroche of south Florida. While innocuously building a nursery business with his wife, he finds success and outlet for his passion for plants.
But as disaster besets him (fatal car crash, hurricane, divorce, financial woes, legal trouble), we start to see what really makes him tick. He is a survivor, a quick thinker, a schemer, a dreamer and, unlike most of us, a just-do-it person. Throughout his life he has a knack for focusing on something, quickly becoming an expert at it, and transforming that passion into a vocation.
Orchids, however, pull him into the land of obsession. We can see this by comparing Laroche with a spectrum of figures in the book who observe orchids with varying degrees of appreciation, lust, envy, wonder, nurture, exploitation, conservation and commercialization. Along the way we learn about the history of orchids in the Western culture, their natural habitats from the cloud forests of South America to the hot, humid jungles of southeast Asia. The author tells us how difficult it is to grow orchids from seed, but how emotionally and financially rewarding it can be to design your own orchid hybrid. Finally, we are told that orchids are immortal, with many plants alive for several human generations, being passed on with reverence, and are still going strong today.
This book contains much, well-researched information on orchids, orchid hunters, orchid growers, and orchid shows and societies but it is, most of all, an illustration of the phenomenon of human passion and obsession: the distinction being that passion is motivating and guiding whereas obsession is reckless and self-destructive. In obsession, the thing outside becomes more valuable than the self-image, and crazy actions are espoused. Hence Larouche's scheme to build an orchid lab on Native American soil, use their legal exemptions to collect wild ghost orchids from otherwise protected state preserves, and aim to be the first to clone and grow in quantity the extremely rare ghost orchid.
Laroche, missing a few front teeth and uttering phrases mixing plant names (in latin) with profanity embodies, in one man, the interesting mix of high culture and low intrigue that seem married to the international trade of orchids. Thankfully the book goes deep into the man Larouche, of his motivations and excesses, of his passions and interior wounds. This man, who is also the most compelling portion of the film adaptation of the book, is carefully plumbed in this non-fiction work.
The result of all this, for the reader, is a great appreciation for the evolutionary success of orchids, the importance of preserving them, shock at what people will do to acquire them, and perhaps a better understanding of why some people pursue things to their destruction while others can play in the same space, with wholesome enjoyment, forever.
I should warn you that, after the movie and the book, my curiousity of orchids led me to read five or six non-fiction, how-to books on orchid cultivation. I can report, based upon those other works, that the research in 'The Orchid Thief' is very good. There are little inaccuracies, mainly with regards to the claim that orchids have no natural enemies. A more correct statement is that they have not many natural enemies. However, I'm learning from my local orchid group, they still suffer from things like fungal rot, red spider mites and orchid viruses that can attack them. So while they don't seem to senesce or kill themselves through aging (they probably don't need to, since they reproduce so infrequently) they can in fact die of from these competitors, pests, and diseases.
So, yes, I'm growing an orchid plant now and have my eyes on a few others. Let's hope I keep my interest in the realm of passion, and avoid all the extremes of obsession highlighted in 'The Orchid Thief.' And wherever Larouche is now, my hat's off to you for your courage, ingenuity, resourcefulness, wit, charm, and--most of all--your passion!