Books I've Loved: White Oleander

This has been one of my favourite books ever since I first read it many years ago.  It's one of those books I lend to people all the time and never seem to get back.  So when I found a copy at the second-hand book stand recently, I decided to buy it to replace the three or four other copies I've owned and lost.  And then of course I had to re-read it to remind myself why it's one of my favourite books.

On a basic level the book is about a tense relationship between a mother and a daughter across a number of years.  Toward the beginning of the book, when the daughter, Astrid, is around twelve, her mother falls in love with a man who rejects her.  Enraged, she murders him.

Astrid then finds herself in the foster system, moving from placement to placement, bending herself to fit into each new family.  But she never fully escapes from her mother whose voice remains embedded in her soul and whose letters find her everywhere she goes.  

The book follows Astrid as she navigates her way through these different homes, each providing her with a different example of womanhood that she carries with her into young adulthood.

i think what I love the most about this book is the beauty of the writing.  I can only dream of being able to write such gorgeous prose.  But unlike a lot of beautifully written books, there's a compelling story with strongly realised characters that leap from the page.  Too often beautifully written books get so lost in the language, they forget to be great stories at the same time.

So I recommend this book wholeheartedly.  I would also recommend the author's duology about the Russian Revolution (I can't remember the titles off the top of my head, just the way I tore through both volumes in less than a week while on vacation one year).

But don't just listen to me.  Here's the blurb:

Everywhere hailed as a novel of rare beauty and power, White Oleander tells the unforgettable story of Ingrid, a brilliant poet imprisoned for murder, and her daughter, Astrid, whose odyssey through a series of Los Angeles foster homes--each its own universe, with its own laws, its own dangers, its own hard lessons to be learned--becomes a redeeming and surprising journey of self-discovery.