Orchid Fever by Eric Hansen

Overall rating- B: The Orchid World is fascinating but Hansen's storytelling needs some work.

“You can get off alcohol, drugs, women, food, and cars but once you’re hooked on orchids, you’re finished. You never get off orchids...never.” And so begins Orchid Fever (both the book and the ‘illness’ itself) and how Orchids have seduced the horticultural industry for the past two centuries with their beauty, delicate nature, pollination process, seductive scents, and in some cases, their rarity.

Catasetum denticulatum

Because of those reasons (and probably more), Orchids also tend to give people ‘orchid fever,’ which is not so much a sickness as much as it is a name for the obsession.  Travel writer and author Eric Hanen explains it best by stating, “in the same way orchids attract specific insects to help them pollinate by producing signature scents, people are also attracted to these scents, which then induces ‘orchid fever’ in many. They soon find they have no choice but to collect orchids, feed them, love them, and stay entranced by their beauty for the rest of time…these orchid people are referred to as hobbyists but they cater to the needs of their beloved orchids with a single minded devotion that blurs between love and lunacy.”

Vanda dearii

This becomes truer than Henson could have ever imagined as he explores everywhere from the Borneo rainforest to study the rarest of orchids, to the Orchid shows where fat judges with chubby fingers handle these delicate flowers and criticize them on the smallest of details.  Although the Orchid judges seemed a little ridiculous, Hansen met an interesting man, Joe Kunish, who really gave perspective as to where their obsession landed on the crazy scale, “…the only people that are weirder than us are the dog show people…and we are not a distant second by any means.”

Oncidium papilio

Everywhere he went, Hansen met an amazing array of people who were involved in the orchid world, for better or for worse: there were the scientists who just wanted to study, observe, and understand them; the appreciators who were entranced by their beauty and/or scent; the growers who doted on them like their own lived depended on it; and then the politicians, making so many ridiculous regulations and restrictions that people had to choice but to break the rules in order to follow them.  

Paphiopedilum malipoense

I found so much of what he was saying fascinating; getting an insider’s look at this amazing world of people who treat the orchids like their children and the effects these flowers had on their followers. However, there were a couple huge problems that really hurt the way the story could be interpreted. (Fiction or non-fiction, your story has to flow and have a point, or else the reader will become bored and all will be for nothing.)

Tolumnia scandens

For one thing, the structure of the book was all wrong.  He had all of the right material; it just wasn’t arranged in the right order.  Remember in the beginning of this review where I gave Hansen’s description of Orchid fever? Yeah, well, a quarter of the way through the book, he says that along with a description of that makes an orchid so different from other flowers. That is something you say in the beginning; to not only pull the reader in but also to set them up for what the book will be focusing on.  But no…instead, he places important information in random spots of the book, making parts of his book dry and stagnant. 

Ansellia africana

If that wasn’t bad enough, he makes one of the worst mistakes an author can make: he extended the ending. The second to last chapter would have been the perfect ending; everything has come full circle and I felt a sigh of relief.  But once again, no…I turn the page and see what so many authors before him have done and it rarely turns out well: they get the ‘one more thing’ syndrome.  What that means is they drag the story out by adding ‘one more thing’ to make the story even better, when instead they overcompensate and make the reader want to scream. And he didn’t just add ANY chapter…he added one that was TRIPLE the length of the other chapters. That’s like hiking up a mountain, thinking you’ve reached the top only to see that you still have a long ways to go and you’re exhausted, ready to be done already.

Maxillaria huebschii

Despite its flaws, Hansen’s journey was not made in vain. He brought awareness to this amazing and intricate world of Orchids and how such beauty can help the world. Orchids have more uses than we know of and if Hansen and others who have Orchid Fever stray away from the politics and focus on the orchids themselves, then they may be able to start a revolution toward a better planet and better future for us all.

~Shelly-Beans