Review of The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean

Susan Orlean completely captures the idea of obsession in her detailed-to-the-point-of-being-obsessive, novel, The Orchid Thief. After reading a newspaper article about a man who is caught stealing, along with three Seminole natives, an endangered species of orchid from the Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve in Florida, Orlean flies to Florida to shadow the man who would attempt such a stunt. Her resultant novel combines her observations of John Laroche-for whom the book is presumably titled-history of the orchid, biology of the orchid, the orchid collectors' culture, and her own interior musings about this species of flower.