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The Orchids
Dr. Langhof, nearly forty years after his medical experiments for the Waffen SS, lives on in seclusion in the Republic, remembering--with no forgiveness or atonement--his descent into darkness and degradation
252 pages, Hardcover
First published September 27, 1982
22 people are currently reading
122 people want to read
About the author
Thomas H. Cook
96 books353 followersThere is more than one author with this name on Goodreads.
Thomas H. Cook has been praised by critics for his attention to psychology and the lyrical nature of his prose. He is the author of more than 30 critically-acclaimed fiction books, including works of true crime. Cook published his first novel, Blood Innocents, in 1980. Cook published steadily through the 1980s, penning such works as the Frank Clemons trilogy, a series of mysteries starring a jaded cop.
He found breakout success with The Chatham School Affair (1996), which won an Edgar Award for best novel. Besides mysteries, Cook has written two true-crime books including the Edgar-nominated Blood Echoes (1993). He lives and works in New York City.
Awards
Edgar Allan Poe – Best Novel – The Chatham School Affair
Barry Award – Best Novel – Red Leaves
Martin Beck Award of the Swedish Academy of Detection – The Chatham School Affair
Martin Beck Award of the Swedish Academy of Detection – Red Leaves
Herodotus Prize – Fatherhood
Thomas H. Cook has been praised by critics for his attention to psychology and the lyrical nature of his prose. He is the author of more than 30 critically-acclaimed fiction books, including works of true crime. Cook published his first novel, Blood Innocents, in 1980. Cook published steadily through the 1980s, penning such works as the Frank Clemons trilogy, a series of mysteries starring a jaded cop.
He found breakout success with The Chatham School Affair (1996), which won an Edgar Award for best novel. Besides mysteries, Cook has written two true-crime books including the Edgar-nominated Blood Echoes (1993). He lives and works in New York City.
Awards
Edgar Allan Poe – Best Novel – The Chatham School Affair
Barry Award – Best Novel – Red Leaves
Martin Beck Award of the Swedish Academy of Detection – The Chatham School Affair
Martin Beck Award of the Swedish Academy of Detection – Red Leaves
Herodotus Prize – Fatherhood
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
November 20, 2019
5 "dark, unfathomable, grotesque and repulsive" stars!!
6th Favorite Read of 2016
I needed to finish this book tonight. I could no longer stand the darkness, the horror and the nightmares this book elicited. A book that is so carefully and richly rendered that turned me away from food and permeated my days with fear and dread and made the nights so very long.
Goodreads does not have a description of this book (published in 1982) so I shall supply a short one. The book is about two old Nazi Doctors that have escaped to a South American Banana Republic after they committed countless atrocities at a concentration camp in the name of science. Nazi Germany and the Banana Republic are contrasted and compared throughout the novel as one of the doctors reflects back on his life and tries to understand how he could have become so passive and evil. In the end psychology, sociology, politics or any other system of thought cannot begin even to touch the why such horrible events occurred.
Each year the doctors meet with the President of the Banana Republic and host a feast where they pay the fee of a priceless diamond in order to continue to live in the Republic and not be turned over to those that search for him. The book goes back and forth in time between the present and past with a deftness and genius that left me feeling claustrophobic and terrified. The horrors of the oppressed in the Banana Republic although harsh paled to the extermination of Jews, Homosexuals, Roma and Socialists at the hands of the Nazis.
The writing was insightful, dark and able to strike me to the core. Here are a few examples:
"Sometimes I dream that in the end all the innocent blood that has been shed will be gathered in a great pit and those who spilled it will be forced to swim in it forever"
"The night is black as a dream of death. In oblivion there will be no color, not even blackness. But if there were a world beyond this world, perhaps we would be reborn into it not as our physical selves, but as the simple, irreducible essences of what we were. The killer would be born again, not as a man or woman but as some perfect engine of destruction- a pistol or an ice pick. The comedian would return only as a laugh, the victim only as a scream. In such a world Ludtz might be reborn as a crusty little tomb, and Langhof as a maggot imprisoned in a tear."
"The snow was wholly without symbolic importance, but not to a romantic; for it is part of the blindness of romance to see life, and finally history, as a series of telling moments properly adorned by the imagery of fall or redemption, and to neglect all the lies in between, all that generates, debases or inspires."
"At that moment, he saw himself as figure out of classical drama, the noble spirit flatlly and undeservedly snared in evil. But he was in fact a figure out of melodrama, mired in self-pity and self-justification, the handmaidens of weakness and crime."
"Here in the Republic, we are accustomed to inversions: to the chill within the swelter, the knife between the velvet, the sea snake twisting in the cool, blue wave."
This book grabs you by the cojones and does not let go. It forces you to witness, forces you to try and understand when there is no way to understand the evil that humankind does to humankind.
Final quote:
"Juan seeks a miracle to save the orchids, a pearl dropped into the humid soil from the hand of God. Esperanza, staring at the steamy, rotting innards of a crocodile, seeks salvation from her rooted humanness, seeks to know that mystery of creation which will lift her to a golden throne. Ludtz, picking lichens from his tomb, seeks the Virgin's comforting smile, seeks the erasure of the pas, seeks to pluck saintliness from a life of shame. Alberto and Tomas seek the miraculous between the the spread legs of some brown girl and see paradise in her willing smile. Don Camillo seeks his redemption in vast fields of undiscovered copper. In the variety with which we yearn for the miraculous resides our sole infinitude."
This book is PERFECT but it is TOO MUCH...I will take a lot of time before I try another one of this author's novels.
6th Favorite Read of 2016
I needed to finish this book tonight. I could no longer stand the darkness, the horror and the nightmares this book elicited. A book that is so carefully and richly rendered that turned me away from food and permeated my days with fear and dread and made the nights so very long.
Goodreads does not have a description of this book (published in 1982) so I shall supply a short one. The book is about two old Nazi Doctors that have escaped to a South American Banana Republic after they committed countless atrocities at a concentration camp in the name of science. Nazi Germany and the Banana Republic are contrasted and compared throughout the novel as one of the doctors reflects back on his life and tries to understand how he could have become so passive and evil. In the end psychology, sociology, politics or any other system of thought cannot begin even to touch the why such horrible events occurred.
Each year the doctors meet with the President of the Banana Republic and host a feast where they pay the fee of a priceless diamond in order to continue to live in the Republic and not be turned over to those that search for him. The book goes back and forth in time between the present and past with a deftness and genius that left me feeling claustrophobic and terrified. The horrors of the oppressed in the Banana Republic although harsh paled to the extermination of Jews, Homosexuals, Roma and Socialists at the hands of the Nazis.
The writing was insightful, dark and able to strike me to the core. Here are a few examples:
"Sometimes I dream that in the end all the innocent blood that has been shed will be gathered in a great pit and those who spilled it will be forced to swim in it forever"
"The night is black as a dream of death. In oblivion there will be no color, not even blackness. But if there were a world beyond this world, perhaps we would be reborn into it not as our physical selves, but as the simple, irreducible essences of what we were. The killer would be born again, not as a man or woman but as some perfect engine of destruction- a pistol or an ice pick. The comedian would return only as a laugh, the victim only as a scream. In such a world Ludtz might be reborn as a crusty little tomb, and Langhof as a maggot imprisoned in a tear."
"The snow was wholly without symbolic importance, but not to a romantic; for it is part of the blindness of romance to see life, and finally history, as a series of telling moments properly adorned by the imagery of fall or redemption, and to neglect all the lies in between, all that generates, debases or inspires."
"At that moment, he saw himself as figure out of classical drama, the noble spirit flatlly and undeservedly snared in evil. But he was in fact a figure out of melodrama, mired in self-pity and self-justification, the handmaidens of weakness and crime."
"Here in the Republic, we are accustomed to inversions: to the chill within the swelter, the knife between the velvet, the sea snake twisting in the cool, blue wave."
This book grabs you by the cojones and does not let go. It forces you to witness, forces you to try and understand when there is no way to understand the evil that humankind does to humankind.
Final quote:
"Juan seeks a miracle to save the orchids, a pearl dropped into the humid soil from the hand of God. Esperanza, staring at the steamy, rotting innards of a crocodile, seeks salvation from her rooted humanness, seeks to know that mystery of creation which will lift her to a golden throne. Ludtz, picking lichens from his tomb, seeks the Virgin's comforting smile, seeks the erasure of the pas, seeks to pluck saintliness from a life of shame. Alberto and Tomas seek the miraculous between the the spread legs of some brown girl and see paradise in her willing smile. Don Camillo seeks his redemption in vast fields of undiscovered copper. In the variety with which we yearn for the miraculous resides our sole infinitude."
This book is PERFECT but it is TOO MUCH...I will take a lot of time before I try another one of this author's novels.
August 19, 2016
5 stars
¡Ay, este libro, El Calíz y las orquideas! ¡Mil bravos de Señor Cook, el jefe desde..Fort Payne, Alabama! (Wha?)
Y'all are gonna probably tire of me gushing over this guy, but Thomas H Cook (spawned from the literary void that is NE Alabama) is absolutely a force to be reckoned with. Though Cook (with over 30 novels under his belt) is primarily touted for his mystery-writing prowess, the two that I've read from his extensive library (2010's The Last Talk With Lola Faye, a Mamet-like beauty and this, Cook's second novel, The Orchids (1982)) are not really mysteries at all, Cook's stock-in-trade seems to be creating thought-provoking atmospherics and unforgettable characters, sewn together seamlessly with gorgeous prose.
I was utterly blown away by this one. Many (including my good Goodreader compadre Jaidee, who recommended this gem to me) might scoff a little at this comparison, but I got a real strong Gabriel García Márquez and One Hundred Years of Solitude vibe from this, not because this is slathered with impenetrable, "magical realism", but the surreal symbolism of the village (El Calíz) that the protagonist dwells and the orchids in his charge evoked in me similar feelings that the Buendías and the village of Macondo did in One Hunded Years.... (Unlike One Hundred Years... though, which left me often befuddled at García-Márquez' intent, The Orchids {and Cook} left me spellbound with its slowly-emergent, haunting clarity.)
It's all about the atmospherics here (it's not super plot-driven) but things begin with Dr. Peter Langhof (along with neighbor and former associate Dr. Ludtz) living out their retirement in a village called El Calíz, a village in an undisclosed, Spanish-speaking "Republic" (most probably of the "Banana-" variety), with a backdrop of a gorgeous, lush jungle and howling monkeys in the trees (and a hint of of insurrection as rebel forces make their way southward) Using some tricky (but very effective, once you get used to them) POV shifts (Langhof's first person narration in "the present", an omnicient third person to describe the past), we slowly are provided the reason these two (most probably foreign) doctors are puttering away in the jungle, tending orchids (Langhof) and constructing a sepulchre (Ludtz). We learn that both doctors were SS-recruited hygienists involved in heinous, unspeakable experiments at an unnamed concentration camp during World War II. You will probably intuit that the doctors are indeed escaping prosecution for war crimes by hiding out in El Calíz, probably with the sanction (and a well-greased palm here and there) of El Presidente, the Banana Republic's vainglorious autocrat.
It is the recurring back and forth (from the horrific descriptions of the dubious "experiments" at the "Camp", to present-day goings on with the doctors awaiting a dinner visit from their adopted country's El Presidente) that really got my skin crawling. Again, this is not a mystery or a thriller, just a extremely well-written mood piece (and here I defer to Jaidee's exceptional review for a sampling of quotes from the Cook's stunning prose: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ). As is often the case with books that stun me to the core, I find myself too flabbergasted to formulate a coherent review, but it is my sincere hope that you (if you're at all interested, and I hope you are) cull the archives and give The Orchids (and Thomas H. Cook, one heck of an author) a try. Highly Recommended
¡Ay, este libro, El Calíz y las orquideas! ¡Mil bravos de Señor Cook, el jefe desde..Fort Payne, Alabama! (Wha?)
Y'all are gonna probably tire of me gushing over this guy, but Thomas H Cook (spawned from the literary void that is NE Alabama) is absolutely a force to be reckoned with. Though Cook (with over 30 novels under his belt) is primarily touted for his mystery-writing prowess, the two that I've read from his extensive library (2010's The Last Talk With Lola Faye, a Mamet-like beauty and this, Cook's second novel, The Orchids (1982)) are not really mysteries at all, Cook's stock-in-trade seems to be creating thought-provoking atmospherics and unforgettable characters, sewn together seamlessly with gorgeous prose.
I was utterly blown away by this one. Many (including my good Goodreader compadre Jaidee, who recommended this gem to me) might scoff a little at this comparison, but I got a real strong Gabriel García Márquez and One Hundred Years of Solitude vibe from this, not because this is slathered with impenetrable, "magical realism", but the surreal symbolism of the village (El Calíz) that the protagonist dwells and the orchids in his charge evoked in me similar feelings that the Buendías and the village of Macondo did in One Hunded Years.... (Unlike One Hundred Years... though, which left me often befuddled at García-Márquez' intent, The Orchids {and Cook} left me spellbound with its slowly-emergent, haunting clarity.)
It's all about the atmospherics here (it's not super plot-driven) but things begin with Dr. Peter Langhof (along with neighbor and former associate Dr. Ludtz) living out their retirement in a village called El Calíz, a village in an undisclosed, Spanish-speaking "Republic" (most probably of the "Banana-" variety), with a backdrop of a gorgeous, lush jungle and howling monkeys in the trees (and a hint of of insurrection as rebel forces make their way southward) Using some tricky (but very effective, once you get used to them) POV shifts (Langhof's first person narration in "the present", an omnicient third person to describe the past), we slowly are provided the reason these two (most probably foreign) doctors are puttering away in the jungle, tending orchids (Langhof) and constructing a sepulchre (Ludtz). We learn that both doctors were SS-recruited hygienists involved in heinous, unspeakable experiments at an unnamed concentration camp during World War II. You will probably intuit that the doctors are indeed escaping prosecution for war crimes by hiding out in El Calíz, probably with the sanction (and a well-greased palm here and there) of El Presidente, the Banana Republic's vainglorious autocrat.
It is the recurring back and forth (from the horrific descriptions of the dubious "experiments" at the "Camp", to present-day goings on with the doctors awaiting a dinner visit from their adopted country's El Presidente) that really got my skin crawling. Again, this is not a mystery or a thriller, just a extremely well-written mood piece (and here I defer to Jaidee's exceptional review for a sampling of quotes from the Cook's stunning prose: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ). As is often the case with books that stun me to the core, I find myself too flabbergasted to formulate a coherent review, but it is my sincere hope that you (if you're at all interested, and I hope you are) cull the archives and give The Orchids (and Thomas H. Cook, one heck of an author) a try. Highly Recommended
May 22, 2017
I love Thomas H. Cook's books, so I am never disappointed.
This is an engaging tale of two SS refugees from Nazi Germany living in South America. Both were doctors in a concentration camp, and one is telling his story. And an interesting perspective it is, indeed. The past is relived alongside the present situation: living richly under the auspices of an Idi Amin-type dictator. Cook keeps you guessing throughout the book and reveals only a little at a time. Truly suspenseful.
This is an engaging tale of two SS refugees from Nazi Germany living in South America. Both were doctors in a concentration camp, and one is telling his story. And an interesting perspective it is, indeed. The past is relived alongside the present situation: living richly under the auspices of an Idi Amin-type dictator. Cook keeps you guessing throughout the book and reveals only a little at a time. Truly suspenseful.
September 20, 2020
4.5 stars. This is my second Thomas H. Cook book and it did not disappoint. So good despite it being a very disturbing and haunting topic. There are some images described that I don’t think I will ever forget. Such impactful and beautiful writing. And while this is fiction, it read like a memoir of the main character and it felt so real. Definitely not the typical WWII novel. It is from the perspective of a Nazi character and while it was upsetting and scary, it was an interesting take on how someone could end up following a path that leads to participation in such unspeakable evil. Many lines worth noting for a short book - here are some of them:
Of all our words, perhaps the most beautiful, and difficult, is no.
There must always be someone who thinks about this place. Not someone who just remembers, but someone who thinks.
Imprisoned in the I, we clothe ourselves in the robes of predictability, cling to our routine like insects on a floating leaf, hold with battered claws to whatever is familiar, and above all, refuse to see the world even for one moment through a wall of flame.
It is in the nature of illness to reduce the parameters of one’s world to a tight little knot of injury. Nothing contracts the self into a small, aching center of restricted consciousness more than a sudden assault upon the integrity of health.
Sometimes I dream in the end all the innocent blood that has been shed will be gathered in a great pit and those who spilled it will be forced to swim in it forever.
I have come to love all things that move with stamina through pain.
Having once been, he always seeks to be.
In all his life he has spoken one memorable sentence…”One cannot imagine waltzing after this.”
Two separate worlds coexist in the Republic: leisure and labor. Labor does not purchase leisure. It is a dreary coin that can buy nothing but more of itself.
[T]here are certain worlds where beauty itself may become transmuted into obscenity.
There is no limit to our capacity for self-deceit. And perhaps our greatest craft lies in our manifold rejection of that knowledge which, if we embraced it, would make life almost impossible.
[T]here was this undeniable sense of dread, which was itself a kind of knowledge.
He was held within the grasp of his greatest illusion: that while we are, we can cease to be.
There is no limit to miraculous possibilities once the first miracle has been accepted.
Of all our words, perhaps the most beautiful, and difficult, is no.
There must always be someone who thinks about this place. Not someone who just remembers, but someone who thinks.
Imprisoned in the I, we clothe ourselves in the robes of predictability, cling to our routine like insects on a floating leaf, hold with battered claws to whatever is familiar, and above all, refuse to see the world even for one moment through a wall of flame.
It is in the nature of illness to reduce the parameters of one’s world to a tight little knot of injury. Nothing contracts the self into a small, aching center of restricted consciousness more than a sudden assault upon the integrity of health.
Sometimes I dream in the end all the innocent blood that has been shed will be gathered in a great pit and those who spilled it will be forced to swim in it forever.
I have come to love all things that move with stamina through pain.
Having once been, he always seeks to be.
In all his life he has spoken one memorable sentence…”One cannot imagine waltzing after this.”
Two separate worlds coexist in the Republic: leisure and labor. Labor does not purchase leisure. It is a dreary coin that can buy nothing but more of itself.
[T]here are certain worlds where beauty itself may become transmuted into obscenity.
There is no limit to our capacity for self-deceit. And perhaps our greatest craft lies in our manifold rejection of that knowledge which, if we embraced it, would make life almost impossible.
[T]here was this undeniable sense of dread, which was itself a kind of knowledge.
He was held within the grasp of his greatest illusion: that while we are, we can cease to be.
There is no limit to miraculous possibilities once the first miracle has been accepted.
April 25, 2025
tendré q indagar más sobre este libro, al principio no captaba mucho las cosas pero a partir de la 3ª parte fue más ameno e interesante
June 9, 2017
Thomas H. Cook who has become well known as a mystery writer. The Orchids is one of his early works which has an element of mystery in it, but could be better characterized as a literary novel. The plot line seems simple. Two German doctors toward the end of WWII have made their way to an unnamed country in South America ruled by El Presidente. What they do there involves a contract with this leader, and is highly classified work. What is actually happening is in reality a struggle between good and evil producing a novel of literary merit .
April 6, 2018
I really wanted to give it five stars--something I almost never do. The writing, the descriptions were so beautiful, making me want to reread many passages. The horror of the camp events counter the beauty of the writing--perhaps this is part of what the writer was talking about much of the time, that there is beauty in pain, and pain in beauty.
August 31, 2020
Very strange book. I a not sure if I liked it or not. The author tries to impress the reader with his use of big words no one understands. I expected more from all the 5 star reviews I resd prior to puchasing this book
May 23, 2021
Such odd writing. Some in the first person then switching to a narrator. All chapters jumped from the Dr’s present life to flashbacks in the Camp. Very dark story but what wasn’t dark during that war? You feel his remorse but never feel bad for him. The remorse comes too late.
Read
January 16, 2025DNF - did not finish...Thomas H. Cook is a favorite author of mine, unfortunately The Orchids, his 2nd novel, wasn't doing it for me right from the first page...After 80 pgs it's time to move on...-Sorry Thomas, still I'm looking forward to reading your next book...0 outta 0...
August 20, 2012
One of the more interesting books I've read this summer.
How quirky is it?
It actually (almost) makes you feel sympathetic towards the Nazi monsters who have hidden themselves away in South America and grown old.
Almost.
Kind of a mystery - kind of not. Mostly a very engrossing character study, that will keep you interested right to the last (disarming and unsettled) sentence.
I read it straight through - couldn't put it down.
I highly recommend it.
How quirky is it?
It actually (almost) makes you feel sympathetic towards the Nazi monsters who have hidden themselves away in South America and grown old.
Almost.
Kind of a mystery - kind of not. Mostly a very engrossing character study, that will keep you interested right to the last (disarming and unsettled) sentence.
I read it straight through - couldn't put it down.
I highly recommend it.
August 23, 2013
Reads like poetry or literary fiction utterly character-driven and wonderfully descriptive. One of Cook's earliest books before his move to mysteries. Describes an ambiguous Nazi medical doctor who while cowardly in his acquiescence to the New regime nonetheless grows morally through an inter-racial friendship, History repeats itself as the doctor lives in hiding among a s.American totalitarian state. He is wiser understands more but still struggles to achieve moral courage.
August 2, 2012
A quick, well-written read. There are not many surprises in the plot, but it's an interesting story nonetheless. Written from the viewpoint of an old man looking back on his life, it gives a new angle to the standard World War II story.
May 19, 2013
The central characters are former Nazis who hide in South America after the war. There are some very disturbing events, but it is an interesting story. Cook remains one of my favorites.
March 12, 2014
An excellent story with some insights into the horrors of nazi camps
August 25, 2014
Too much background with no purpose.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews