Orchid Thief: An Exercise in Narrative and Non-Narrative Subversion

According conventional genre expectations of fiction and non-fiction, most readers assume that nonfiction provides factual information regarding historical events in a documentary and provable fashion, without recourse to constructed dramas in the form of dialogue or long character descriptions. In contrast, the same reader might turn to a work of fiction, although fiction might not be technically accurate, to learn as well. Through the use of dialogue and flights of fantasy in narration, fiction provides insight into the human character.

The non-fiction work by Susan Orlean, entitled The Orchid Thief, however, provides ample examples of the use of non-narrative and narrative exposition. The work thus has both the expository quality of non-fiction combined with the character-driven psychological drama of fiction. Orlean is writing about an event that actually happened, thus she writes in the tones of non-fiction, in an expository fashion....
[ View Full Essay]