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The Orchid Thief

A True Story of Beauty and Obsession (Ballantine Reader's Circle)

By Susan Orlean

(11)

| Paperback | 9780449003718

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Book Description

In Susan Orlean's mesmerizing true story of beauty and obsession is John Laroche, a renegade plant dealer and sharply handsome guy, in spite of the fact that he is missing his front teeth and has the posture of al dente spaghetti. In 1994, Laroche and three Seminole Indians were arrested with rare oContinue

In Susan Orlean's mesmerizing true story of beauty and obsession is John Laroche, a renegade plant dealer and sharply handsome guy, in spite of the fact that he is missing his front teeth and has the posture of al dente spaghetti. In 1994, Laroche and three Seminole Indians were arrested with rare orchids they had stolen from a wild swamp in south Florida that is filled with some of the world's most extraordinary plants and trees. Laroche had planned to clone the orchids and then sell them for a small fortune to impassioned collectors. After he was caught in the act, Laroche set off one of the oddest legal controversies in recent memory, which brought together environmentalists, Native Amer-ican activists, and devoted orchid collectors. The result is a tale that is strange, compelling, and hilarious.
        
New Yorker writer Susan Orlean followed Laroche through swamps and into the eccentric world of Florida's orchid collectors, a subculture of aristocrats, fanatics, and smugglers whose obsession with plants is all-consuming. Along the way, Orlean learned the history of orchid collecting, discovered an odd pattern of plant crimes in Florida, and spent time with Laroche's partners, a tribe of Seminole Indians who are still at war with the United States.
        
There is something fascinating or funny or truly bizarre on every page of The Orchid Thief: the story of how the head of a famous Seminole chief came to be displayed in the front window of a local pharmacy; or how seven hundred iguanas were smuggled into Florida; or the case of the only known extraterrestrial plant crime. Ultimately, however, Susan Orlean's book is about passion itself, and the amazing lengths to which people will go to gratify it. That passion is captured with singular vision in The Orchid Thief, a once-in-a-lifetime story by one of our most original journalists.


From the Hardcover edition.

Critics

  • The Orchid Thief By Susan Orlean

    Who doesn't love to be able to walk out of a holiday blockbuster and say, "Well, not bad but the book was better"? Get a jump on the season's upcoming films by reading the great books that inspired them, several of which are available in new editions ... (read full critics)

    bookpage published on Thu, 16 Sep 2010

  • The Orchid Thief By Susan Orlean

    We tend to think of flower growers and collectors as timid, gentle souls who spend their days wistfully tending to their colorful collections and praying for a little rain. But in these true-life dispatches by New Yorker writer Susan Orlean, we're in ... (read full critics)

    bookpage published on Tue, 14 Sep 2010

1 Review

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  • read more like a research paper at times than a novel.. very interesting in some parts, excruciatingly detailed in others. didn't finish before it was due back at the library, didn't renew.

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    cait4328 said on Jul 28, 2007 about the Audio CD edition | 1 feedback

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9780449003718 Paperback $15.00 $10.80 bn.com
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