Product Description

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK

A modern classic of personal journalism, The Orchid Thief is Susan Orlean’s wickedly funny, elegant, and captivating tale of an amazing obsession.

From Florida’s swamps to its courtrooms, the New Yorker writer follows one deeply eccentric and oddly attractive man’s possibly criminal pursuit of an endangered flower. Determined to clone the rare ghost orchid, Polyrrhiza lindenii, John Laroche leads Orlean on an unforgettable tour of America’s strange flower-selling subculture, along with the Seminole Indians who help him and the forces of justice who fight him. In the end, Orlean–and the reader–will have more respect for underdog determination and a powerful new definition of passion.

Praise for The Orchid Thief:

“Fascinating . . . tales of theft, hatred, greed, jealousy, madness, and backstabbing . . . an engrossing journey.”
–Los Angeles Times

“Irresistible . . . a brilliantly reported account of an illicit scheme to housebreak Florida’s wild and endangered ghost orchid . . . Its central figure is John Laroche, the ‘oddball ultimate’ of a subculture whose members are so enthralled by orchids they ‘pursue them like lovers.’ ”
–Minneapolis Star Tribune

“Artful . . . in Ms. Orlean’s skillful handling, her orchid story turns out to be distinctly ‘something more.’ . . . [Her] portrait of her sometimes sad-making orchid thief allows the reader to discover acres of opportunity where intriguing things can be found.”
–The New York Times

“Zestful . . . a swashbuckling piece of reporting that celebrates some virtues that made America great.”
–The Wall Street Journal

“Deliciously weird . . . compelling.”
–Detroit Free Press

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #54642 in Books
• Published on: 2000-01-04
• Released on: 2000-01-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

From Amazon.com
Orchidelirium is the name the Victorians gave to the flower madness that is for botanical collectors the equivalent of gold fever. Wealthy orchid fanatics of that era sent explorers (heavily armed, more to protect themselves against other orchid seekers than against hostile natives or wild animals) to unmapped territories in search of new varieties of Cattleya and Paphiopedilum. As knowledge of the family Orchidaceae grew to encompass the currently more than 60,000 species and over 100,000 hybrids, orchidelirium might have been expected to go the way of Dutch tulip mania. Yet, as journalist Susan Orlean found out, there still exists a vein of orchid madness strong enough to inspire larceny among collectors.

The Orchid Thief centers on south Florida and John Laroche, a quixotic, charismatic schemer once convicted of attempting to take endangered orchids from the Fakahatchee swamp, a state preserve. Laroche, a horticultural consultant who once ran an extensive nursery for the Seminole tribe, dreams of making a fortune for the Seminoles and himself by cloning the rare ghost orchid Polyrrhiza lindenii. Laroche sums up the obsession that drives him and so many others:

I really have to watch myself, especially around plants. Even now, just being here, I still get that collector feeling. You know what I mean. I'll see something and then suddenly I get that feeling. It's like I can't just have something--I have to have it and learn about it and grow it and sell it and master it and have a million of it.

Even Orlean--so leery of orchid fever that she immediately gives away any plant that's pressed upon her by the growers in Laroche's circle--develops a desire to see a ghost orchid blooming and makes several ultimately unsuccessful treks into the Fakahatchee. Filled with Palm Beach socialites, Native Americans, English peers, smugglers, and naturalists as improbably colorful as the tropical blossoms that inspire them, this is a lyrical, funny, addictively entertaining read. --Barrie Trinkle

From Publishers Weekly
"Folding virtue and criminality around profit are [John] Laroche's specialty," Orlean writes of the oddly likable felon who's the subject of her latest book. But what could be virtuous about poaching endangered orchids, which?not insignificantly?are worth a small fortune? If exotic flowers were cloned, everyone could afford them, Laroche would say. It's just such "amoral morality" that compels New Yorker staff writer Orlean (Saturday Night) to relocate to Naples, Fla., in order to dig into an orchid-collecting subculture as rarefied as its object of desire. Orlean spends two years attempting to place maverick Laroche in the rigid strata of orchid society, the heart of which is located in Florida. The milieu includes "Palm Beach plant lovers" and international stars such as Bob Fuchs, a commercial breeder whose family has been in the business for three generations. Laroche, on the other hand, is a self-taught horticulturist, yet one who has enough expertise to convince the nearby Seminole Indians to hire him as plant manager for their nursery. With the promise of big profits, he launches a plan to reproduce the "ghost" orchid, using samples stolen from the Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve, leading to his arrest. Though she fills in a brief history of the $10-billion trade, Orlean's account of her orchid-land explorations, which include wading through a swamp in hope of spotting a ghost orchid (she doesn't see one) is not so much an expose as a meandering survey of the peccadilloes of the local orchid breeders. Clearly Orlean is most intrigued by autodidact Laroche, not the world he temporarily inhabits, which unfortunately makes for a slim, if engaging, volume. Author tour.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
The thief in question and offbeat genesis for New Yorker writer Orlean's book is ever-quotable eccentric John Laroche, whose craving for the rare orchid eventually lands him and three Indian accomplices in a Florida courtroom--and allows Orlean to write her appreciative and lyrically funny profile of obsession and Florida. (LJ 1/99)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Customer Reviews

round two
okay, here's another run at why this is unbelievably bad writing. When I "watched" Adaptation (see my review of this stinker for details) I initially thought it was based on a fictitious book. When I learned otherwise, I couldn't believe that such malarkey existed, though of course I should have known better.
Some writers are the biographers of Einstein. Some are the biographers of saints. Susan Orlean is the biographer of a piece of white trash with a mental disorder. It is supposed to be very quixotic and eccentric, but at bottom we are hit with a guy who is an obsessive collector of random things. He is also not above breaking the law to suit himself, hence the title. In this degenerate age, this is all we can hope for when looking for an exemplary life. This guy's life is not even very interesting, let alone inspiring.
And then there is the matter of disingenuousness. The author tells the reader that Laroche - the collector - was writing a guide to growing plants which he was going to advertize in High Times. However, marijuana plants "grown according to his instructions would never mature and hence would never be psychoactive." See, this Laroche is keeping kids on the straight and narrow. We should laud him. Except for the fact that this "information" is completely false. I have grown my fair share of marijuana and have found first-hand that it certainly is not just budding plants which are psychoactive. In fact, sadly, not one of my plants ever made it that far: I smoked them long before that.
So if this part is a load of BS, just think what else may be completely made-up.

an insider's guide to book publishing
Let me explain the world of modern publishing for you. A writer's agent pitches a book. The editor at the publishing company looks at it and says, "No, this will never sell. Not mainstream enough. Try the small presses who will pay dogsh#t." What IS bestseller material? Well, here's where it gets interesting. A can't-miss bestseller that is sure to garner wild critical acclaim is a book that is:
VERY LONG
VERY BORING
VERY POINTLESS
VERY VULGAR

Why, you ask, is this the formula? Bend close and I'll tell you: Because people don't actually read these books. People pretend to read them. Then they recommend them to others, who then pretend to read them. Critics don't read them either. You kidding me? Do know what kind of attention critics pay to anything? About as much attention as anybody pays while on the job: as little as possible, am I right? No, they just hold their finger up to the wind and try not to stand out by differing from the herd opinion. They've heard its great, don't even look at the book, write a review based on somebody else's review and it goes from there. All a bestseller must have is the LOOK of a bestseller. It must be thick, it must have an exotic yet boring title and cover - just so you know you're in for some real art. And it must be vaguely historical seeming so you feel you're getting a real education while you have the unopened book lying next to you at the beach. Some relative of yours wanders over and makes some inquisitive noises about the book and you make noises back to the effect that its real great. The relative then hears Oprah talk about it - who also has not and never will read the book - and then goes and finds it prominently displayed on the new release rack at the bookmegastore. Thus is perpetuated el hustle. If I were a consultant to a publishing house I would advise them to save money by not having any print inside the book. What's that you say? Save further money by gluing the book shut and having a hollow interior? No, the book's gotta have that heft to it or nobody will buy it. You know, its gotta be real heavy material. Kapeesh?

Give me a break!
At the New Yorker Offices:

Susan Orlean's friend: That was a great article about that orchid guy in Florida. Why don't you write a book about it?

Susan Orlean: Thanks, but I don't know. There's probably not enough for a book. I think I'm all set.

Susan Orlean's friend: SURE there is. Just space out the stuff about the guy and fill in stuff about . . . I dunno . . . the history of orchids. Or the history of Florida. You could go in a million directions.

Susan Orlean: Maybe you're right.

And so, the "Orchid Thief" was conceived. This book offers an interesting character who's obsessed with the collection and cultivation of orchids. But if you don't think that's enough to carry the requirements of inking an entire book, you're exactly right.

So, the book wanders on and on and on and on about orchids, orchid hunters. Orchid hunters in America. Orchid hunters in Europe. The Europeans who hired those orchid hunters. What they were thinking. Florida. The different people in Florida. The Seminoles. The treaties they didn't sign. Where they come from. The Seminole culture. All interesting subjects in their own right sure, but not in this one stream-of-consciousness puffification of a New Yorker article.

If this book had gone on fifty more pages, Orlean would have covered the Florida State Seminoles. The football titles they've won. They beat Notre Dame. The Irish. U2 is Irish . . . Forever this book rambles on and is only tied together by the rapidly diminishing presence of this one man's obsession with collecting orchids in Florida. Where Disneyworld is. Busch Gardens, too.