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WILD RELEASE NOTES:

To the finder of this book:

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Taken from the book buffet at the Dublin Convention. I'm not sure if I want to read this, but I know it was made into a film, and lots of people like it. So the only way to find out is to try it, but I'm afraid it might languish on Mount TBR for a while first...

White Oleander by Janet Fitch

My Goodreads rating: 4 of 5 stars


This was a novel which sucked me in by the intensity of the experiences and the beauty of the descriptions. Initially adoring her bohemian mother, as Astrid grows older and wiser, she realises how selfish,self-absorbed and manipulative her mother Ingrid was. Ingrid's behaviour eventually lead to her imprisonment, and as a result her daughter, Astrid, is exposed to a series of terrible experiences as she is moved from foster home to foster home. When she finally builds a relationship with one of the foster mothers, happiness is torn away from her by the poisonous influence of her mother. Yet it is also a story of the resilience of human hope and the ability to survive in the most terrible of situations. This really is a wonderful book, and I'd love to see the film.

The descriptions in this book are delicious and so well-observed, especially of nature:
"startling a convention of parking lot pigeons that rose in a great flickering wheel of dark and light grays, taking the stale morning sun on their wings, the freshness already bled from the air."

Books:
"the books on the shelves [...] reminded me of cultured or opinionated guests as a wonderful party, whispering to each other."

At Marvel's I loved the references to the survival tips such as "I was waiting, thinking ahead, setting out my hubcaps."

Watching Olivia Johnstone (the African American next door neighbour who gave Ingrid the culture and self-respect she craved):
"I lived for the sight of her. [...] It was just enough dew on my decks to keep me another day." Olivia "asked questions, listened, and kept the music coming, tea and lemon cookies. I felt I had woken up on my raft to find a yacht dropping a ladder. You never knew when rescue might come.

The contrast between Ingrid (Astrid's imprisoned mother) and Olivia:
"a world of satisfaction where you found only fury and desire. The world parts for Olivia, it lies down at her feet, where you hack through it like a thorn bush."

The children's home:
"You couldn't have this many damaged people in one place without it becoming like any other cell-block or psych ward. They could paint the halls all they wanted, the nightmare was still real."

Love:
"I don't believe in it the way people believe in God or the tooth fairy. It's more like the National Enquirer. A big headline and a very dull story."

Hope:
"From now on, I only wanted things that could be touched, tasted, the scent of new houses, the buzz of wires before rain. A river flowing in moonlight, trees growing out of concrete, scraps of brocade in a fifty-cent bin, red geraniums on a sweatshop window ledge. Give me the way rooftops of stucco apartments piled up forms in the afternoon like late surf, something without a spin, not a self-portrait in water and wind. Give me the boy playing electric guitar, my foster home bed at the end of Ripple Street, and the shape of Yvonne and her baby that was coming. She was the hills of California under mustard and green, tawny as lions in summer."

Astrid's new disciples, replacing Ingrid, tarnished after all she has endured:
"Her children, her new children. Stainless as snowdrops. Bright and newborn. Amnesiac. I had been in foster care almost six years now, I had starved, wept, begged my body was a battlefield, my spirit scarred and cratered as a city under siege, and now I was being replaced by something unmutilated, something intact? [...] I was the old child, the past that had to be burned away, so my mother, the phoenix cold emerge once again, a golden bird rising from ash."



View all my reviews on Goodreads

Released during the New Year's Meeting.

This book has been released as part of the following BookCrossing challenges:
- The Ultimate Challenge - read and release books, with extra points for a monthly theme
- Reduce Mount TBR (To Be Read) - read and release books on the TBR list since before the end of 2013. My reading goal is 36 books.
- Pages Read Challenge - read a self-set target number of pages in 2013. My goal is 15,000.

I took this book home from the New Year's Meeting! :)

Wow, what a great book! I found the story sad, but interesting, and I especially loved the book's beautiful language. I am now also very curious about the 2002 movie, and will probably watch it too when I get a chance.

I'll let this book continue its journey soon. :)

Left in Minibieb Lincolnlaan in Goes! :)

This book was still in the Minibieb. I now took it out to find a new release spot for it. :)

I'll take this book with me to the 'Fall Meeting' at OBCZ-Westerpark! :)