 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
- Women's fiction - |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
White Oleander |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 White Oleander byJanet Fitch Little, Brown & Company 390 pages, 1999 ISBN 0316569321 Reviewed by Nancy Duncan Read our author interview In Janet Fitch's astonishing debut novel White Oleander the author captures her readers from the very first page, leading them along a magnificent journey of self exploration into the depths of the human soul and the will to survive. Fitch is an artist and master of the written word. Her tale of Astrid and her mother Ingrid, who is imprisoned for killing her lover, is an unforgettable story sure to leave you thinking long after the book's last page is turned. As Astrid weaves her tale along the sometimes chaotic path of one foster home after another, the reality of a child forced to survive as a victim of her mother's selfish act rises to the surface in an unflinching portrait of lost innocence. Fitch has captured the tumultuous terrain of mother-daughter relationships, and the painful path to adulthood that Astrid is forced to travel alone in the foster care system. The author demonstrates an innate ability to see into the shadowy psychological realm of complex characters, many of whom are relegated to the underside of society. With depth and insight, Fitch has written a painful, yet explicit look at a sometimes malicious mother, caught up in her own inner domain and artistic struggles. Ingrid is a character not soon forgotten, nor is Astrid, whose youthful eyes become privy to the madness her mother spins, much like the threads of shadows cast on an afternoon wall. White Oleander is an entertaining and engrossing page turner that is hard to put down and a definite must read. Fitch is a master stylist and storyteller who leaves you eagerly anticipating her next novel. Highly recommended. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||