Susan Orlean

Once upon a time, some 25 years ago, I went to a small orchid show at the Royal Botanical Gardens in southern Ontario, Canada. I wasn't a real fan of orchids before that show, but orchids turned out to be pretty interesting, some even beautiful, when all gathered together in one room. I bought an orchid for my kitchen windowsill. The flowers were green, a green with a yellowy undertone. Despite hearing about how difficult they are to keep alive, and my own lack of success growing any plant at any point, the orchid stayed alive for years. It took minimal tending, minimal water, and just sat there and looked pretty. Eventually it died, but some day I may get another.

I'm never going to be obsessed with orchids like the people in this book. When I say obsessed, I am meaning the sort of lust for orchids that supercedes the criminal justice system, which comes into play when you steal them from a swamp in Florida on state land, which is illegal, hence the word "steal". Some orchids are endangered species, and stealing them contravenes federal laws about the removal or killing of them. There are rich people who will spend tens of thousands of dollars to own some of the rarer species. There are break-ins, schemes, park rangers, the heat of Florida in summer, the Seminole Indian tribe, deep, dangerous swamps, and alligators.

At the middle of all this mess is John Laroche, whose trial for orchid-snatching drew author Susan Orlean to see his trial, and eventually to follow the madmen and women who populate this book all round southern Florida. She visits nurseries, swamps, orchid shows, orchid fanciers, judges, prosecuting attorneys, and anyone else who will talk to her about the deep obsession that fascinates her. Orlean tells John Laroche that she doesn't collect anything, but she's wrong, I think. She collects strange people, flies and drives thousands of miles to speak to them, collecting their stories and them in a way that has made her a successful journalist. The Laroche story was published in The New Yorker, which is how you know you've made it if you're an American journalist.

It was a great story. Orlean is drily funny, and laugh-out-loud funny sometimes too. I read another of her books, The Library Book, which I only half-heartedly liked, but this book I enjoyed mightily. I like hearing about strange people, about things I know nothing about, like orchids and bromeliads and swamps, and this book left me quite satisfied. If you want weird, I recommend this book.… (mer)