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Loading... Olive Kitteridge: Fictionby Elizabeth Strout
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. You read it and you think that's exactly what you do not want to happen to you when you get old, even though you somehow know it is going to be like that. (  ) nakiki | Nov 11, 2009 |  Short stories about live in a small Maine town that weave into each other. Touching, delicately wrought fiction. (  ) slkullberg | Nov 7, 2009 | Olive Kitteridge is a collection of short stories, some published previously in periodicals, which bear the common thread of touching on the character of the title character. In a few of the stories, Olive, a large woman and retired middle school math teacher, is the central character. In some of the stories we see Olive as others in her family and community see her. And in at least two stories, Olive makes only a passing appearance much like Alfred Hitchcock walking briefly through each of his movies. In this way, we see Olive's character reflected in many ways, not all of them flattering. At the same time we see glimpses of the community and its underpinnings. The seasons, fauna & flora, and the water of the bay and river figure prominently in the motif of the stories. They lend an atmosphere of hope, longing, sorrow, and loss. In the latter third of the book, Olive spends much time in what she calls the "bump out room" of the home that she and Henry built. This seems to represent some sort of waiting room where she looks over the tulips and waits for the next stage of her life begins. Perhaps in some ways this book is a coming of age story for the boomers who are also moving into that next, late, unexplored phase of life. This is a book that definitely improves with a discussion group. ( ) tangledthread | Nov 7, 2009 | Beautiful and thorny collection of stories set on the Maine coast. The characters are not always likeable, not always 100% sympathetic, but always human. ( ) rutabega | Nov 2, 2009 | I was not a big fan of this book and am surprised that it won the Pulitzer. andyg227 | Nov 2, 2009 | 
 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.
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 140006208X, Hardcover)In a voice more powerful and compassionate than ever before, New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Strout binds together thirteen rich, luminous narratives into a book with the heft of a novel, through the presence of one larger-than-life, unforgettable character: Olive Kitteridge.At the edge of the continent, Crosby, Maine, may seem like nowhere, but seen through this brilliant writer’s eyes, it’s in essence the whole world, and the lives that are lived there are filled with all of the grand human drama–desire, despair, jealousy, hope, and love. At times stern, at other times patient, at times perceptive, at other times in sad denial, Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher, deplores the changes in her little town and in the world at large, but she doesn’t always recognize the changes in those around her: a lounge musician haunted by a past romance: a former student who has lost the will to live: Olive’s own adult child, who feels tyrannized by her irrational sensitivities; and Henry, who finds his loyalty to his marriage both a blessing and a curse. As the townspeople grapple with their problems, mild and dire, Olive is brought to a deeper understanding of herself and her life–sometimes painfully, but always with ruthless honesty. Olive Kitteridge offers profound insights into the human condition–its conflicts, its tragedies and joys, and the endurance it requires. (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:57:54 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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