Ingrid's sentence to jail starts a six-year transformation in Astrid from the girl who worships her mother to someone who tries to stay away from her.Īstrid's years in foster care are almost gut-wrenching to read about. When Barry leaves her for another woman, Ingrid's methodical jealousy has her murdering him by poison. Until Barry Kolker came along and proved to be her weakness. Men came to her, but she frowned on them. Noticed by now that reality didn't always conform to my mother's ideas.Īstrid's mother, Ingrid, did not give herself to men. She had drummed it into my head since I was small. Were beautiful, as long as you did things beautifully. You could do anything you wanted, as long She sketches a very vivid portrait of her mother, Ingrid - someone who scorns on anyone 'beneath' her, someone who is highly appreciative of beauty and condemning of who/what doesn't possess it, someone who believes she has to be in control and jealously frowns on anyone Astrid gets attached to.īeauty was my mother's law, her religion. White Oleander is told from Astrid's perspective. The writing flowed easily, in fact, I couldn't wait to turn page after page to know what happens next. Poetic writing is not some thing I enjoy usually (since I'm pathetic in poetry). Janet Fitch writes White Oleander in a very eloquent style. You could either take the story at face value and be swayed by it, as I did, or you could critically analyze it and call upon its credibility. After reading it, I could see how it could sway you in either ways. They either really liked it or really disliked it. Most people have been powerfully affected by it. I had heard previously how good/bad this book is. Foiling her, Astrid learns about tendernessįrom one foster mother and how to stand up for herself from another. Measure of control over their relationship. Strength, gains her mother's white-blonde beauty, and achieves some In the process, this girl develops a wire-tight inner There were so many missing pieces.'įitch adroitly leads Astrid down a path of sorting out her past and Mother's totalitarian state, my own personal history rewritten to fit Hollywood bungalow, White Oleander uncoils her existentialĪnxieties. This leads to a life sentence in prison, leavingĪstrid to teach herself the art of survival in a string of Los AngelesĪs Astrid bumps from trailer park to tract house to Her, she illustrates her point, killing the man with the poison of And when one of Ingrid's boyfriends abandons Telling her daughter that they are descendants of Vikings, savages whoįought fiercely to survive. An uncompromising poet, Ingrid despises weakness and self-pity, Novel, White Oleander, has a mother who is as sharp as a new Astrid Magnussen, the teenage narrator of Janet Fitch's engrossing first

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