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The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession
By Susan Orlean.
Filmed as Adaptation
(2002), directed by Spike Jonze.
First published 1998.
Paperback.
ISBN-10: 044900371X
ISBN-13: 978-0449003718
Description:
A modern classic of
personal journalism, The Orchid Thief is Susan Orlean’s wickedly funny,
elegant, and captivating tale of an amazing obsession. Determined to clone an
endangered flower – the rare ghost orchid Polyrrhiza lindenii – a deeply
eccentric and oddly attractive man named John Laroche leads Orlean on an
unforgettable tour of America’s strange flower-selling subculture, through
Florida’s swamps and beyond, along with the Seminoles 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.
In this new edition,
coming fifteen years after its initial publication and twenty years after she
first met the “orchid thief,” Orlean revisits this unforgettable world, and the
route by which it was brought to the screen in the film Adaptation, in a
new retrospective essay.
Praise for The Orchid
Thief:
“Stylishly written, whimsical yet
sophisticated, quirkily detailed and full of empathy . . . The Orchid Thief
shows [Orlean’s] gifts in full bloom.” – The New York Times Book Review.
“Fascinating . . . an
engrossing journey [full] of theft, hatred, greed, jealousy, madness, and
backstabbing.” – Los Angeles Times.
“Orlean’s
snapshot-vivid, pitch-perfect prose . . . is fast becoming one of our national
treasures.” – The Washington Post Book World.
“Orlean’s gifts [are]
her ear for the self-skewing dialogue, her eye for the incongruous, convincing
detail, and her Didion-like deftness in description.” – Boston Sunday Globe.
“A
swashbuckling piece of reporting that celebrates some virtues that made America
great.” – The Wall Street Journal.
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