THE WHITE ROSE is everything a novel should be. This is a beautifully written book, and author Jean Hanff Korelitz is to be congratulated.The story is rich and complex. There are a variety of plots and subplots, each of which is compelling enough to be the center of its own novel.The story gets off to a slow start, which serves neither the author nor her readers well. Yet once one immerses oneself in these characters, THE WHITE ROSE is touching and gripping.There are a multitude of love affairs described, with excellent descriptions of passion.There are different versions of the story of the White Rose, including the real one about a small group of upper class Germans who resisted the Nazis.There are details about the highest levels of academia and scholarship, and about the lifestyles of those New Yorkers who, quietly and without ostentation, are very, very rich.THE WHITE ROSE is filled with amazing insights, so incisive and so clear that these literally are breathtaking.The only quibbles go to the author's descriptions of cooking. In one scene, on a day she describes as warm, a character puts on a tweed jacket and necktie to reduce a sauce and boil some pasta. Please! Who wears wool to labor over a hot stove? In another scene, a different character cooks a brisket in less than an hour. It takes more than an hour simply to prep a brisket, and the cooking needs four to six hours. Didn't anyone associated with the manuscript--author, agent, editor--have a clue?The other issue is the author's sense of direction. The route she suggests using between Manhattan and East Hampton is preposterous. Once again, this weird discrepancy stops the lovely flow of her story.Yet as a book, THE WHITE ROSE is the finest use of the metaphor of the rose as an example both of the life cycle and a thing of pure beauty since the excellent novel THE ROSE GROWER was published in 2000.THE WHITE ROSE is a perfect bloom.