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White Oleander : A Novel by Janet Fitch
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Reviews of White Oleander : A Novel by Janet Fitch
Amazon.com
Astrid Magnussen, the teenage narrator of Janet Fitch's engrossing first
novel, White Oleander, has a mother who is as sharp as a new knife. An
uncompromising poet, Ingrid despises weakness and self-pity, telling her
daughter that they are ancestors of Vikings, savages who fought fiercely
to survive. And when one of Ingrid's boyfriends abandons her, she
illustrates her point, killing the man with the poison of oleander flowers.
This leads to a life sentence in prison, leaving Astrid to teach herself
the
art of survival in a string of Los Angeles foster homes.
As Astrid bumps from trailer park to tract house to Hollywood
bungalow, White Oleander uncoils her existential anxieties. "Who was I,
really?" she asks. "I was the sole occupant of my mother's totalitarian
state, my own personal history rewritten to fit the story she was telling
that day. There were so many missing pieces." Fitch adroitly leads Astrid
down a path of sorting out her past and identity. In the process, this
girl
develops a wire-tight inner strength, gains her mother's white-blonde
beauty, and achieves some measure of control over their relationship.
Even from prison, Ingrid tries to mold her daughter. Foiling her, Astrid
learns about tenderness from one foster mother and how to stand up for
herself from another. Like the weather in Los Angeles--the winds of the
Santa Anas, the scorching heat--Astrid's teenage life is intense. Fitch's
novel deftly displays that, and also makes Astrid's life meaningful.
--Katherine Anderson
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The New York Times Book Review, Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina
...[an] impressive first novel.... her startlingly apt language relates
a story
that is both intelligent and gripping.
Publishers Weekly, February 22, 1999
Thirteen-year-old Astrid Magnussen, the sensitive and heart-wrenching
narrator of this impressive debut, is burdened with an impossible mother
in Ingrid, a beautiful gifted poet whose scattered life is governed by
an
enormous ego.
Fitch is a splendid stylist; her prose is graceful and witty; the dioalogue,
especially Astrid's distincitve utterances and loopy adages, has a
seductive pull. This sensitive exploration of the mother-daughter terrain
(sure to be compared to Mona Simpson's Anyhere But Here) offers a
convincing look at what Adrienne Rich has called "this womanly splitting
of self," in a poignant, virtuosic, utterly captivating narrative.
Judith Kicinski, Library Journal, April 15, 1999
This novel will surely be hailed as one of the best novels of the year
and is
likely the best debut this reviewer has ever read. When beautiful,
egotistical poet Ingrid murders the lover who dumped her, 12-year-old
daughter Astrid descends into the hells of foster care, where she is
sustained only by a fierce intelligence and great artistic talent.
Heartbreaking, but without a trace of sentimentality, this novel provokes
the amazement that children like Astrid can emerge whole and capable
after what we know are even worse childhoods than hers.
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From Kirkus Reviews , February 15, 1999
A first-rate debut about a teenaged girls arduous six-year journey of se
lf-discovery. Astrid is 12 when her beloved mother, the poet Ingrid
Magnussen, murders a former lover and is sent to jail. Her father long
gone, Astrid ends up in foster care, moving through dysfunctional
households across southern Califor nia. Only Claire Richards, actress
wife of a wealthy TV producer, seems to offer a real family life as she
nurtures Astrids academic and artistic abilities. But the Richards home
has deep emotional fissures, skillfully exploited by Ingrid, who keeps
jealous watch over her daughter by letter. Weak, neurotic Claire succu
mbs, and Astrids last foster home is a chaotic crash-pad overseen by a
Russian i mmigrant engaged in various semi-legal hustles. Meanwhile,
Ingrid has become a f eminist cause clbre with naive young disciples and
a media-savvy lawyer working to get her a new trial. The embittered
Astrid wants no part of this effort, and in a jailhouse confrontation
challenges Ingrid to prove that she regrets her des tructive role and will
try to make amends for the hard times shes caused her dau ghter. Despite
melodramatic plot twists, the foster homes provide a nicely eclec tic
panorama of late 20th-century American life and a revealing stage for
Astrid s growth and personal struggles. Shes an appealing protagonist,
smart and vulner able, though her formidable mother is even more
intriguing, and the author brilliantly delineates the womans complexity
through her letters, which are masterpie ces of epistolary voice and
character development. Fitch displays remarkable art istic and
psychological maturity throughout, skillfully making use of metaphors (like
the beautifully poisonous oleander, Ingrids signature flower) to illuminat
e
her central theme: the longing for order and connection in a world where
even the most intimate bonds can be broken in an instant. The author
allows her prota gonist to achieve adulthood, love, an artistic vocation,
and some semblance of i nner peace without scanting the scars she will
always carry. Vigorous, polished prose, strong storytelling, satisfyingly
complex characters, and thoughtfully nu anced perceptions: an impressive
debut indeed. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights
reserved.
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Glamour, April 1999
When her passionate poet mother, Ingrid, is jailed for killing her ex-lover
(with poison brewed partly from white oleander flowers), Astrid
Magnussen navigates her way to adulthood through a series of Los
Angeles foster families and juevenile homes. Astrid's strength and
resilience makes this compelling novel an inspiration.
Elizabeth Berg, author of Durable Goods and Range of Motion
This is what you're after when you're browsing the shelves for something
GOOD to read. WHITE OLEANDER is a siren song of a novel,
seducing the reader with its story, language, and, perhaps most of all,
with its utterly believable (and remarkably diverse!) characters. The
narrator is particularly memorable - there were times she made me want
to cheer and weep simultaneously. Finishing this book made me feel
gratefully bereft, and I look forward to Janet Fitch's next work.
Robert Olen Butler, author of A Good Scent from a Strange
Mountain
Janet Fitch writes with breathtaking beauty about the central theme of
our
age: the search for self. WHITE OLEANDER is a remarkable debut
novel.
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Book Description ofWhite Oleander : A Novel by Janet Fitch
Astrid is the only child of a single mother, Ingrid, a brillant, obsessed
poet
who wields her luminous beauty to intimidate and manipulate men. Astrd
worships her mother and cherishes thier private world full of ritual and
mystery - but their idyll is shattered when Astrid's mother falls apart
over
a lover. Deranged by rejection, Ingrid murders the man, and is sentenced
to life in prison.
WHITE OLEANDER is the unforgettable story of Astrid's journey
through a series of foster homes and her efforts to find a place for herself
an impossible circumstances. Each home is its own universe, with a new
set of laws and lessons to be learned. With determination and humor,
Astrid confronts the challenges of loneliness and poverty, and strives
to
learn who a motherless child in a an indifferent world can become.
Tough, irrepressible, funny, and warm, Astrid is one of the most indelible
characters in recent fiction. WHITE OLEANDER is an unforgettable
story of mothers and daughters, burgeoning sexuality, the redemptive
powers of art, and the unstoppable force of the emergent self. Written
with exquisite beauty and grace, this is a compelling debut by an author
poised to join the ranks of today's most gifted novelists.
Synopsis of White Oleander : A Novel by Janet Fitch
When a woman murders a former lover and is imprisoned for life, her
daughter must navigate a new reality--that of a series of foster homes,
each its own universe, each with its own limits and dangers.
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Synopsis of White Oleander : A Novel by Janet Fitch
When a woman murders a former lover and is imprisoned for life, her
daug hter must navigate a new reality--that of a series of foster homes,
each its own universe, each with its own limits and dangers.
About the Author of White Oleander : A Novel by Janet Fitch
Janet Fitch is a third-generation resident of Los Angeles. Her fiction
has
appeared in a A Room of One's Own, Black Warrior Review, and Rain
City Review, among other publications. An excerpt from White Oleander
was selected as a notable story in Best American Short Stories 1994.
White Oleander : A Novel by Janet Fitch
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