Susan Orlean does a great job being amazed by people without condescending to them. John Laroche is quite the character and were he to be a subject of a podcast or a presence on the internet, he’d likely milkshake duck as soon as possible. This book follows Susan Orlean’s interaction with Laroch, a roughneck Florida orchid enthusiast who is somewhere between amateur botanist, entrepreneur, and conman, living among the conmanest state in the union, Florida. This book provides background on the swamps and land development […]