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Welcome to our sci-fi comic book superhero store. We've incorporated products from amazon and overstock along with videos from youtube of movie and video game trailers, movie reviews, and even comic book video reviews to help you make a better informed buying decision. This is the most fun place on earth to shop for superhero products.

Comic Book Superhero Store - White Oleander (Oprah's Book Club)

List Price: $13.99
Our Price: $11.19
Your Save: $ 2.80 ( 20% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Back Bay Books

Average Customer Rating:

Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780316284950
ISBN: 0316284955
Label: Back Bay Books
Manufacturer: Back Bay Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 480
Publication Date: 2000-05-01
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Studio: Back Bay Books

White Oleander Oprah's Book Club #24

Price:	$11.08
Store:	Overstock

Thirteen-year-old Astrid Magnussen has to grow up quickly when her beautiful mercurial mother murders her lover (with the poison from oleander flowers more info ...

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Editorial Reviews:

"Oprah's Book Club(r) May 1999 Selection Astrid is the only child of a single mother, Ingrid, a brilliant, obsessed poet who wields her luminous beauty to intimidate and manipulate men. Astrid worships her mother and cherishes their private world full of ritual and mystery-but their idyll is shattered when Astrid's mother falls apart over a lover.

Deranged by rejection, Ingrid murders the man, and is sentenced to life in prison. White Oleander is the unforgettable story of Astrid's journey through a series of foster homes and her efforts to find a place for herself in impossible circumstances. Each home is its own universe, with a new set of laws and lessons to be learned. With determination and humor, Astrid confronts the challenges of loneliness and poverty, and strives to learn who a motherless child in an indifferent world can become. Tough, irrepressible, funny, and warm, Astrid is one of the most indelible characters in recent fiction. White Oleander is an unforgettable story of mothers and daughters, burgeoning sexuality, the redemptive powers of art, and the unstoppable force of the emergent self. Written with exquisite beauty and grace, this is a compelling debut by an author poised to join the ranks of today's most gifted novelists."

Spotlight customer reviews:

Customer Rating:

Summary: One of my favorite books
Comment: I absolutely love this book. I read the entire thing in one day. It is beautifully written - like a long poem. The author's use of metaphors is frequent, but they never become sickening. They are so beautifully written that I was in awe of her abilities. Not only is the book very well-written, but the story is captivating. I was able to identify with both Astrid and her mother in various ways. Although the story did not end how I had wished, I was able to find a lot of hope in it as well as wisdom that I intend to apply to my own life.

Customer Rating:

Summary: A touching story
Comment: I rarely enjoy anything that Oprah picks... even when I read it before she does. This was an exception. The story of Astrid is disturbing, painful, and beautiful all at the same time. She is dealt more hard knocks then you can imagine, and starting at a very young age. Maybe she gets through it all because she really doesn't know any different. White Oleander is a roller coaster of emotions, and a book you won't be able to put down

Customer Rating:

Summary: Great read, beautifullly written
Comment: This book was a great read from beginning to end. I loved the writing style, it was unique from other novels. You get to experience life as Astrid and every page will make you want to read more and more. Fascinating characters, wonderful story...tragic at times. You get to learn a lot about life when a child goes through group homes and how its not easy.

If you want a tragic story, a great read, view of life in a way you have never seen and imagine seeing...this book is for you.

Its one of my favorite books!

Customer Rating:

Summary: good book
Comment: It's a nice interesting read with a good unique story. I liked it a lot.

Customer Rating:

Summary: A well-crafter exploration of a girl growing up hard in the system
Comment: I read the Kindle version of this, but the text is the same, so that probably doesn't matter.

White Oleander the story of a young girl named Astrid Magnussen with a mother who is...unique. If I'm being kind. A terribly sociopathic pretentious abuser would be a more accurate description. Her mother is a poet, or fancies herself as one, and lives life on a level that her skill, fame and money cannot support. None of that matters, and neither does her daughter. If her daughter can be a prop in the great play of Ingrid Magnussen's life, then Astrid will be used that way. If not? Just ignore the child.

Mom does something serious and goes to jail. Astrid becomes a ward of the state and travels from home to home, growing up and trying to figure out how she sees the world, how she wants the world to see her and with every day that passes, seeing through her mother's cloud of lies, pretense and verbal abuse. What happens is not as important as how and why it happens, and Janet Fitch spends a lot of time making sure the reader understands the thoughts that run screaming through Astrid's head. We learn a great deal about how each home and family and friend she makes or doesn't affects how she develops.

There's a bit of Nabokov in Fitch's writing, and not just because there is a Lolita-like passage. The writing - all first-person from Astrid herself - starts out clunky, awkward, like someone who wants to write like a classic master but can't. Over time, as Astrid grows up, is exposed to other people and gets distance from her overbearing, pretentious mother, the writing changes. It becomes more utilitarian and less poetic, yet just as vivid. The writing transforms into (sometimes complex) sentences made up of simple, descriptive elements instead of overly-long poorly done purple prose. You can see these people, her drawings, the houses...Fitch does a good job painting the mental picture you need to truly connect with this material.

If there is a negative to be said, it's that the first chapter is hard to get through. I think that is intentional. There are cliched metaphors, contradictory elements, badly written sentences...I think all of these things are designed to teach you what constant exposure to her mother has done to Astrid's young mind, how it shaped the way she thinks.

One other aspect that could be seen as negative is that it's pretty depressing. Ultimately you can see it as uplifting in that Astrid survives some pretty horrible things and comes out the other side stronger and smarter. Although she is (rightfully) wary of most people and still unsure of her place in the world, you get the feeling she's starting to find it.

Very interesting book. Well crafted, with strong characters and a real sense of the places and things Astrid sees and feels. If you read "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn" when you were younger and you want a more sophisticated, modern version of that story? White Oleander is the book for you. If you ever spent any time in the care of the state, you will recognize the people and the situations in which Astrid finds herself.

You'll also very much identify with Astrid if you spent your youth under the thumb of a domineering, overbearing parent.

From what my wife told me about the movie, I don't know if I ever want to see it, good though it may be. I really enjoyed the experience of this book and some the things that were changed in order to make the film are things of which I could not let go. I would never give the movie a fair shake, not any time soon anyway.

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