The Orchid Thief

Susan Orlean is the author of over half-a-dozen books, including The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup: My Encounters with Extraordinary People (a collection of profiles), Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend, and The Library Book. Her latest is On Animals, published in 2021. Throughout her career, Orlean has written for Rolling Stone, Esquire, The Boston Globe, and The Boston Phoenix, and since 1992 has been a staff writer at The New Yorker. She has won numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2014 and an honorary doctorate from the University of Michigan, her alma mater.

Orlean’s use of immersion reporting (See: Background) in researching The Orchid Thief and subsequently writing herself into the story make her a central figure in the narrative. During her nearly two years in Florida, she sought out the people involved in the narrative and relates the details of her meetings with them. She also occasionally shares her own feelings and impressions. In doing so, she develops a persona of her own, just as the other people featured do.

Given the many personalities that populate the book, the author comes across as something akin to a “comedic foil” in traditional comedy routines.