The Orchid Thief, Susan Orlean
The Orchid Thief, Susan Orlean
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The Orchid Thief
A True Story of Beauty and Obsession

Author: Susan Orlean

Narrator: Anna Fields

Abridged: 4 hr 52 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/18/2002

Synopsis

The Orchid Thief is the true story of John Laroche, an obsessed Florida plant dealer willing to go to any lengths to steal rare and protected wild orchids and clone them, all for a tidy profit. But the morality of Laroche's actions do not drive the narrative of Orlean's strange, compelling, and hilarious book. She is much more interested in the spectacle this unusual man creates through his actions, including one of the oddest legal controversies in recent memory, which brought together environmentalists, Native American activists, and devoted orchid collectors. She follows Laroche deep into Florida's swamps, tapping into not only the psyche of the deeply opinionated Laroche but also the wider subculture of orchid collectors, including aristocrats, fanatics, and smugglers whose obsession with plants is all-consuming. Orlean portrays the weirdness of it all in wonderful detail, but, ultimately, the book is primarily about passion itself and the amazing lengths to which people will go to gratify it.

About Susan Orlean

Susan Orlean has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1992. She is the New York Times bestselling author of seven books, including The Library Book, Rin Tin Tin, Saturday Night, and The Orchid Thief, which was made into the Academy Award–winning film Adaptation. She lives with her family and her animals in Los Angeles and may be reached at SusanOrlean.com and on Twitter @SusanOrlean.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Cyrano on March 16, 2008

Number one: don't judge this book by the movie Adaptation, which is not a screenplay of the book, but rather a screenplay that contains pieces of the book. Number two, my favorite quote: "The world is so huge that people are always getting lost in it. There are too many ideas and things and people,......more

Goodreads review by Will on July 02, 2014

This all began with a magazine article Orlean was writing about John Laroche, the title character. She headed down to Florida and spent months studying the guy and the environment in which he lived. It is an interesting tale. The book broadens from this introductory piece to cover other things Flori......more

Goodreads review by Barbara on March 26, 2020

When does passion become obsession? Certainly many of the orchid growers and collectors in this book have gone over the line. Set in south Florida, Orlean is brave and relentless in getting her story. She follows the bizarre John LaRoche into the murky swamps of the Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve......more

Goodreads review by Caitlin on April 29, 2009

I adore this book. It's one of my favorites, not just because it's about two of my favorite things - plants and Florida - and not just because it's by one of my favorite writers, and not just because Charlie Kaufman made it into a totally kick-ass movie. I adore it because it's so charming, because......more

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