The Orchid Thief

by Susan Orlean

Inspired by a short, bizarre newspaper article, journalist Susan Orlean embarks on an amusing two-year journey to understand a passionate, yet somehow principled crook and one of his ephemeral obsessions--wild orchids. Her profile of John Laroche was the basis for the critically acclaimed film, ADAPTATION (2003), directed by Spike Jonze, and starring Nicholas Cage and (as Susan Orlean) Meryl Streep. A New York Times Notable Book for 1999.

Editions of The Orchid Thief

ISBN 9780679447399	Binding/Format Hardcover	Publisher Random House Inc	Date 1999	Price $4.00	Used - Acceptable
ISBN 9780449003718	Binding/Format Paperback	Publisher Ballantine Books	Date 2000	Price $1.00	Used, Very Good
ISBN 9781568957364	Binding/Format Hardcover	Publisher Wheeler Pub Inc	Date 1999	Price $3.98	Used - Good
ISBN 9781565116900	Binding/Format Compact Disc	Publisher Highbridge Co	Date 2002	Price $6.40	New
ISBN 9781565116894	Binding/Format Audio Cassette	Publisher Penguin Group USA	Date 2002	Price $1.00	New

Publisher Notes

Describes the life and times of John Laroche, a plant smuggler and orchid thief, and the eccentric world of Florida's obsessed collectors of rare plants. (Tie-in to upcoming feature film directed by Spike Jonze and starring Nicholas Cage and Meryl Streep.) (Biography)

Media Reviews

"Folding virtue and criminality around profit are [John] Laroche's specialty," Orlean writes of the oddly likable felon who's the subject of her latest book. But what could be virtuous about poaching endangered orchids, which not insignificantly are worth a small fortune? If exotic flowers were cloned, everyone could afford them, Laroche would say. It's just such "amoral morality" that compels New Yorker staff writer Orlean (Saturday Night) to relocate to Naples, Fla., in order to dig into an orchid-collecting subculture as rarefied as its object of desire. Orlean spends two years attempting to place maverick Laroche in the rigid strata of orchid society, the heart of which is located in Florida. The milieu includes "Palm Beach plant lovers" and international stars such as Bob Fuchs, a commercial breeder whose family has been in the business for three generations. Laroche, on the other hand, is a self-taught horticulturist, yet one who has enough expertise to convince the nearby Seminole Indians to hire him as plant manager for their nursery. With the promise of big profits, he launches a plan to reproduce the "ghost" orchid, using samples stolen from the Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve, leading to his arrest. Though she fills in a brief history of the $10-billion trade, Orlean's account of her orchid-land explorations, which include wading through a swamp in hope of spotting a ghost orchid (she doesn't see one) is not so much an expos‚ as a meandering survey of the peccadilloes of the local orchid breeders. Clearly Orlean is most intrigued by autodidact Laroche, not the world he temporarily inhabits, which unfortunately makes for a slim, if engaging, volume. Author tour. (Jan.)

First Line

John Laroche is a tall guy; skinny as a stick, pale-eyed, slouch-shouldered, and sharply handsome, in spite of the fact that he is missing all his front teeth.

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