White Oleander

White Oleander, a dramatic fiction by Janet Fitch, was published by Little, Brown and Company in Boston. The story is about a mother and daughter, Ingred and Astrid have a very unusual relationship. Ingred loves her daughter but never asks her what she thinks so therefore doesn't know her daughter too well. Such as she does not know of her daughter's yearning for a father.

Ingred makes it very clear that she will not allow herself to get close to a man. She is a very brilliant, beautiful poet, who is adored by a man named Barry Kolker. He goes to all of her readings, and asks her out each time. One of the times Barry invites her to go to the Gamelan, an orchestra. Loving the Gamelan, she accepts. Her and Astrid join Barry, and they begin talking more. They start going out more, but each time she makes and stands by regulations, such as he will invite her to eat after an event where they had not planned on eating and she will refuse, because she doesn't like to get attached to men, and doesn't want to spend anymore time than she had already allotted.

All of a sudden, her rules start diminishing. One time, there was a knock at her door, and it was Barry. She thought to herself, 'how dare he just come without an invitation?'. When she opened the door (a knife in her hand), he had a bottle of wine, and bag of something that smelled good. To Astrid's surprise she did something least expected. She invited him in. One night Barry said he would be over to her house at 9 and never showed. So the next day, Ingred showed up unannounced at Barry's and she went inside and they made love. Immediately after, he told Ingred she had to leave because he had a date coming. She wanted to seek revenge. She started showing up at every place he was at. She broke into his house. He tried to go to her house and make her stop the nonsense. He tried forcing his way in her house, and she stabbed him in the hand. He left, and the next day she went to his house, where she found he had changed the locks. She broke in and placed white oleanders in his milk, oyster sauce and cottage cheese, and one in his toothpaste. She made an arrangement of white oleanders on his table, and scattered blooms on his bed. A police officer came to Ingred's house, and told her that Barry is accusing her of breaking and entering, and trying to poison him. She calmly stated that Barry is angry with her. She broke up with him and that he couldn't get over her. Ingred and Astrid took trip to Tijuana and Ingred bought a bottle of medicine called, DMSO, which helps drugs absorb through your skin (DMSO helps nicotine patches work), and uses that to poison him. He dies. Ingred is eventually placed in jail, leaving Astrid to jump from foster home to foster home.

Her first foster home is with a mother named Star. Star is a busty, and leggy, ex-coke addict turned Christian. Star has a boyfriend named Ray, and Astrid falls in love with him. Astrid, 13, has an affair with the 40-something Ray. Star gets jealous of their friendship and gets suspicious. One day, Star comes in, in a drunken rage and shoots Astrid. Astrid is immediately removed and placed in a second home, the home of Ed and Marble Turlock. At this home, she was treated like a slave. She was forced to clean and baby-sit, and was never shown any affection, and was never introduced to anyone. Astrid makes friends with a black neighbor, named Olivia Johnston, who the prejudiced