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Loading... Olive Kitteridge: Fiction (edition 2008)by Elizabeth Strout
Work InformationOlive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
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Must-Read Maine (5) » 55 more Five star books (33) Favourite Books (332) Books Read in 2015 (147) Unreliable Narrators (49) Family Drama (15) Books Read in 2022 (449) BBC Radio 4 Bookclub (54) Books Read in 2019 (892) Contemporary Fiction (37) Books Read in 2016 (2,893) Books Read in 2021 (1,706) Books Read in 2020 (2,217) Unread books (336) Female Protagonist (784) AP Lit (232) Academia in Fiction (74) READ IN 2021 (211) GeoCAT 2016 (7) To Read (169) Alphabetical Books (180) Allie's Wishlist (111) Biggest Disappointments (416) No current Talk conversations about this book. Really liked it at first, and bits of it all along; the writing is very good. But there were no happy characters, it seemed, no one who was contented with their lot. And a whole lot of adulterers. Which sounds like I object on religious grounds--not at all, just on the grounds that there might have been ONE happy couple in the bunch, you'd think. If ever a book reached into my chest and took my still-beating heart in its fist, this one did. Elizabeth Strout's writing is so evocative I felt like I was standing on a cliff overlooking a pebbled Maine beach and breathing the salt air. (Oh how I wish...!) Her characters are so alive. But now I am bereft. How can Olive be gone from my life? Ah, but there's a new book! Brb just need to add my name to the queue at the library...
Each of the 13 tales serves as an individual microcosm of small-town life, with its gossip, small kindnesses, and everyday tragedies. Not all the minor characters stand out the way Henry and Olive do, and there are a pile of them to keep straight by the end. I also couldn’t quite place how one story, “Ship in a Bottle,” meshed with the rest. But those are small flaws far outweighed by the book’s compassion and intelligence. The pleasure in reading “Olive Kitteridge” comes from an intense identification with complicated, not always admirable, characters. And there are moments in which slipping into a character’s viewpoint seems to involve the revelation of an emotion more powerful and interesting than simple fellow feeling—a complex, sometimes dark, sometimes life-sustaining dependency on others. Olive Kitteridge might be described by some as a battle axe or as brilliantly pushy, by others as the kindest person they had ever met. Olive herself has always been certain that she is 100% correct about everything - although, lately, her certitude has been shaken. This indomitable character appears at the centre of these narratives that comprise Olive Kitteridge. In each of them, we watch Olive, a retired schoolteacher, as she struggles to make sense of the changes in her life and the lives of those around her always with brutal honesty, if sometimes painfully. Olive will make you laugh, nod in recognition, as well as wince in pain or shed a tear or two. We meet her stoic husband, bound to her in a marriage both broken and strong, and her own son, tyrannised by Olive's overbearing sensitivities. The reader comes away, amazed by this author's ability to conjure this formidable heroine and her deep humanity that infiltrates every page. Belongs to SeriesOlive Kitteridge (1) Belongs to Publisher SeriesKeltainen kirjasto (505) Mirmanda (74) Is contained inHas the adaptationIs abridged inAwardsDistinctionsNotable Lists
At the edge of the continent, in the small town of Crosby, Maine, lives Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher who deplores the changes in her town and in the world at large but doesn't always recognize the changes in those around her. No library descriptions found.
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LibraryThing Early Reviewers AlumElizabeth Strout's book Olive Kitteridge was available from LibraryThing Early Reviewers. Current DiscussionsNonePopular covers
![]() GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:![]()
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Though many of the lives we encounter look at least moderately happy on the surface, there's often profound sadness lurking underneath. This is not new territory, suburban dysfunction and familial drama, and while there's nothing special plot-wise it's Strout's skill as a writer that makes this book shine. Each story is a whole unto itself but subtly builds to create a full picture of Olive, her strengths and her flaws. She can be infuriating, as when she deals with the fear from finding herself the victim of a crime by berating her husband, and she can be deeply relatable and sympathetic, like when she overhears her new daughter-in-law mocking the dress she made herself for their wedding. She is stubborn and proud and controlling and rendered with profound emotional truth. Strout never has to explicitly ascribe these qualities to Olive, because she understands the power of showing rather than telling, which she does in spare-yet-lovely prose.
As in any short story collection, some entries are stronger than others. I loved the first one, "Pharmacy" about Olive's husband's long-ago infatuation with a shy technician at his pharmacy, and two where Olive is only a background mention, "Winter Concert" and "Ship in a Bottle". Some others, like "Tulips" and "The Piano Player", failed to move me. But one of the upsides to reading short stories is that even if you don't care for a particular story, it'll be over soon! I'll be honest, I was not looking forward to reading this book, because it felt like I was in a rut of books that were interconnected vignettes without strong central plots and I wanted to read something with more structure. Happily, though, it's good enough that I found myself very much enjoying it and I'd highly recommend it even if you're skeptical of short stories! (