I got this book in a booklot I bought through eBay. I may or may not read it. Either way it'll get released sooner or later.

2006 Book #29 - White Oleander by Janet Fitch
I'd already written a review for this book and then because of an interruption and not getting back to book reviews in a couple of weeks, I deleted it thinking I'd already uploaded it. So here's my second try three weeks later!

I'm glad I decided to read this book. A co-worker saw that I had the movie version on my queue at Netflix and suggested I read the novel first. She's not the type that has the ability to sit long enough to read a book, so I figured that if it actually held her attention and she loved it, it must be good. I was getting ready to look it up at the library when I remembered that I'd recently ended up with two copies of a book when I didn't check my BookCrossing list of books. I got a large number of books through eBay a couple of years ago that aren't my "usual" reads and I always forget what I have.

I really loved this book. It's what could be pigeon-holed as a "coming of age" story, but it's so not the usual middle-class suburban pablum. The main character, Astrid, has to go through some serious stuff as a foster kid and it left me feeling so sorry for grown kids who have to live through the system. It made me want to take in a foster kid so they wouldn't end up with those crazies out there who just take them in for the money the state will give them.

Here's the plot and sell from the inside of the book jacket:

Astrid is the only child of a single mother, Ingrid, a brilliant obsessed poet who wields her luminous beauty to intimidate and manipulate men. Astrid worships her mother and cherishes their 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 in 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 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.

What's scary, though, is that I really like Astrid's mother. Other than the fact that she's an egomaniac who couldn't take being rejected and went and killed her ex-boyfriend, there's a lot I agree with her about. One way or another she always found out about the families with whom Astrid was living and she'd send her these letters from prison that while on one hand were filled with all sorts of mind poison to keep Astrid under her control, she also said a lot of things with which I agreed. Astrid lived with five different foster mothers/parents: trailer trash Starr and Ray, bigoted middle-class urbanite Marvel and Ed, grasping Argentinian Amelia, middle class suburbanites Claire and Ron, and finally the Russian salvage queen Rena with Sergei.

I could really see that with each one, even though Astrid acted like a totally different person, she was really growing up and figuring out what parts did and didn't work out for her. There was some really crazy crap involving shooting, poverty, starvation, and suicide, but she lived through it relatively unscathed and I can totally respect that. I especially liked how she digested all this stuff and in the end it came out in her art. She was also an artist like her mother, although her medium is drawing/painting and, thanks to her last foster mother Rena's influence, some 3D art. I completely recommend this book. Go and read it and then wonder how they can possibly cram so much drama into an hour and a half movie!