White Oleander
Janet Fitch (1999)
“A girl passes through the hands of strangers to discover who she is when stripped of everything — including the mother who defined her.”
Short Summary
Twelve-year-old Astrid Magnussen is placed in the Los Angeles foster care system after her mother Ingrid, a brilliant and narcissistic poet, murders a former lover with the poison of white oleander flowers. Over the next several years, Astrid cycles through a series of foster homes — each a radically different world with its own values, dangers, and lessons. Through evangelical fervor, domestic violence, artistic mentorship, and grinding poverty, Astrid forges an identity independent of her mother's suffocating influence, ultimately choosing her own path as an artist.
Detailed Summary
Astrid Magnussen is twelve years old and living in a bohemian Los Angeles apartment with her mother Ingrid, a fiercely independent poet who views the world through a lens of aesthetic superiority. When Ingrid's lover Barry Kolker leaves her for another woman, Ingrid poisons him with oleander — a flo...