White Oleander
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| Author | Janet Fitch |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | JADE |
| Genre | Bildungsroman novel |
| Publisher | Little, Brown and Co. |
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Publication date
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1999 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 446 pp |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 40460011 |
| 813/.54 21 | |
| LC Class | PS3556.I8155 W47 1999 |
White Oleander is a 1999 novel by American author Janet Fitch. It is a coming-of-age story about a child (Astrid) who is separated from her mother (Ingrid) and placed in a series of foster homes. The book was a selection by Oprah's Book Club in May 1999 and was adapted as a 2002 film.
At the beginning of the novel, Astrid Magnussen is a 12-year-old girl living in Los Angeles, California. She and her mother, Ingrid Magnussen, a poet, live a solitary life with little outside influence. Astrid's father, Klaus Anders, left before Astrid was old enough to remember him. Astrid relies solely on Ingrid and has trouble fitting in at school. However, Ingrid is self-centered, cold-hearted, and eccentric. She lives by her own rules and shows little interest in Astrid, seeming to forget she has a daughter at all. As a result, Astrid fears abandonment above all else.
Ingrid begins dating a man named Barry Kolker. At first, Ingrid is disgusted by this "goatman", and finds him repulsive. However, Barry continues to pursue her romantically, and Astrid watches her mother break every self-imposed rule as she becomes more involved with him. Eventually, it is revealed that Barry is cheating on Ingrid with younger women, leaving Ingrid shattered and enraged. Numerous attempts at reconciliation leave Ingrid increasingly humiliated and culminate with her breaking into Barry's house and spreading a mixture of DMSO, an arthritis drug, and oleander sap all over the surfaces of Barry's home (the DMSO allows the oleander poison to be absorbed into skin). As a result, Barry dies, and Ingrid is charged with his murder. Sentenced to life in prison, she promises her daughter that she will come back, but Astrid is sent to a series of foster homes.
The first foster family is that of Starr, a former stripper, and recovering drug addict and alcoholic. She has two children of her own, as well as two other foster children. Starr takes in foster children because her own children were in foster care at one time due to her addictions. Despite the fact that he is old enough to be her father, Astrid (who is 14 by this time) has an affair with Starr's live-in boyfriend, Ray, known as "Uncle Ray" to the other kids. As Ray's interest in Starr diminishes, she relapses. One night, after a loud, drunken argument with Ray over his relationship with Astrid, Starr shoots Astrid with a .38. Astrid suffers some broken bones from the gunshots, her wounds are stitched, and she is hospitalized for a few weeks, at which time she begins abusing the prescription drug Demerol, given to her during her hospital stay.
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