White Oleander by Janet Fitch
Review by: Candi

White Oleander by Janet Fitch is now one of my favorite books, thanks to Anathea sending me her copy. The story of a hard, unforgiving woman, Ingrid, and her daughter, Astrid, who feels constantly deprived of love, assurances, and attention. Astrid feels as if she must fade into the woodwork and never ask her mother for anything, for fear that she will leave her, alone. But it happens anyway, when Ingrid retaliates against a lover who scorned her by poisoning him with crushed white oleander. She is sent to prison, and her young daughter slips between the cracks of the system, being placed in foster home after foster home, learning to survive on her own, yet overcompensating by latching onto anyone who will show her the slightest interest. Astrid must learn to find her own words to live by, instead of recycling her bitter poet of a mother's.

I was quite disappointed when I reached the end, like I wanted to keep reading the story of Astrid and her mother until they died. The imagery that she created with her words is amazing. You can "see" every detail that the characters are seeing, and feel every emotion. It is not a happily ever after book, it's a book of struggles, how strong the human spirit can be in the face of constant adversity (which is why it landed on Oprah to begin with). It is sorrowful, infuriating, inspiring, and very, very real.

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