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Cloggie Downunder
A deserving prize-winner.
Olive Kitteridge is the first book in the Olive Kitteridge series by award-winning, best-selling American author, Elizabeth Strout. The small coastal Maine town of Crosby is where Olive Kitteridge and her husband Henry have lived most of their lives. Olive taught math at the Junior High School for thirty-two years; Henry was a pharmacist in the next town over until he retired.
Olive is a bit of an enigma: many in Crosby wonder how Henry puts up with her; she can be direct to the point of rudeness, never suffers fools, is petty and vindictive when it suits her, manages to unwittingly estrange those she cares about to the extent of her own heartbreak, yet can be uncannily perceptive to what others in distress need. When, in her early seventies, her son finally has the wherewithal to be candid, telling her she is bad tempered, her moods capricious, she is mystified and hurt.
Strout has a talent for describing ordinary people living ordinary lives occasionally punctuated by extraordinary events that bring great joy or sorrow or excitement. She gives the reader significant episodes in the lives of the people of Crosby, told from multiple perspectives, and while Olive narrates only some, she features in each one, sometimes as a bystander, sometimes in a more important role.
Related in separate chapters are instances of infidelity, accidental killing and the ensuing grief, a suicide thwarted, ageing, anorexia, an armed hold-up during which are uttered cruel words that can never be unsaid, superficial friends, a couple become reclusive through the actions of their son, early widowhood, confessions of adultery, the aftermath of a last-minute wedding cancellation, a progression from petty theft to arson, and late-in-life relationships. “But here they were, and Olive pictured two slices of Swiss Cheese pressed together, such holes they brought to this union – what pieces life took out of you.”
Strout treats the reader to some gorgeous descriptive prose: “At the very moment Kevin became aware of liking the sound of her voice, he felt adrenaline pour through him, the familiar, awful intensity, the indefatigable system that wanted to endure. He squinted hard toward the ocean. Great gray clouds were blowing in, and yet the sun, as though in contest, streamed yellow rays beneath them so that parts of the water sparkled with frenzied gaiety.”
When, at a certain point, Olive feels “something she had not expected to feel again: a sudden surging greediness for life. She leaned forward, peering out the window: sweet pale clouds, the sky as blue as your hat; the new green of the fields, the broad expanse of water – seen from up here it all appeared wondrous, amazing. She remembered what hope was, and this was it”, Kevin’s perception is different: “Hope was a cancer inside him. He didn’t want it; he did not want it. He could not bear these tender green shoots of hope springing up within him any longer.” A deserving prize-winner.
Cathryn_Conroy
No Wonder It Won the Pulitzer Prize!
No wonder this won the Pulitzer Prize! This is (officially) a short story collection. It's also a novel. So maybe it's a hybrid between the two. The 13 short stories in this book cover a period of about 30 years and take place primarily in and around Crosby, Maine, a small coastal town where everyone knows everyone else. Olive Kitteridge, who is a junior high school math teacher, is the main character in several of the stories and has a supporting role, minor appearance or cameo in all the other stories.
Each story tells the tale of a different Crosby resident, but each story is interrelated to the others. No story stands alone, which is what makes this feel like a novel. An unexplained question or mystery in one story is resolved in another.
This is a book about the human condition: joy and sorrow, commitment and betrayal, honor and revenge, love and sex, life and death. I found the book captivating and gripping, albeit a bit sad and at times heartrending.
Caser
Olive is unforgettable.
Olive isn't always likeable, but who cares? She is a memorable character I would want to know. The stories are superb, well worth rereading over and over again.
Jane_N
Olive
Olive Kitteridge is strong, sassy, thoroughly opinionated and totally lovable. The stories that Elizabeth Strout uses to tell us about Olive are so well written and so detailed that you really get to know the character. Just When you think you know Olive's story, she goes and surprises you. When I re-read this book, I realized that there all parts of Olive in many of my friends. I have lent this book to a few of my girlfriends and we have all agreed that this is one of our favorite books. I totally recommend this book to anyone who likes to about strong women who can make their own way in the world.
Margaret McCrank
Top Recommendation!
Every year in June, our book club has a get-together to choose our books for the up-coming season. We live an hour's drive away from the closest book store, so all our books must be chosen- which we do by voting - before we all disperse to do our book-shopping over the summer, or on-line of course. My choice for this year will be Olive Kitteridge, which I've just finished reading for the second time, first because there are so many rich topics of discussion in this novel, second because we all live in a small community where everyone is known to everyone else, and lastly, because I recognize myself - and many of my book club friends - in this novel - and not always in a flattering way!
I'm not a big fan of short stories, but the appearance of Olive in each of these thirteen stories makes the connection between them flow so smoothly and logically, it seems like both a novel and a series of short stories at the same time. I first read the book a year ago in one sitting, then this more recent reading took over two weeks, as I read one story every day or so. Both ways of reading were rewarding, but I'd give the edge to the one-story- a- day method.
I look forward to sharing this with my book club!
Lynn
Wonderful stories
I always read the Pulitzer Prize winners, but rarely seem to enjoy them. This was an exception. I loved this collection of 11 short stories. Depending on the story, Olive Kitteridge was sometimes the main subject, sometimes she was only mentioned in passing, and sometimes she was the secondary character. As each story goes by, you feel a different emotion for Olive, but overall, I really liked her, flaws and all. Each story had an ending where the reader could imagine many different alternate endings. I thought that would put me off, but I found the author made the stories more powerful that way. This would be an excellent choice for a book club wanting a great discussion on a variety of topics in the same book.
Frank F.
Annoyance
I found the third-to-last and second-to-last stories to be an annoyance (the one about the two young sisters whose mother tried to shoot her daughter's boyfriend and the one about the disturbed young preacher's daughter). These were two very depressing short stories that really had nothing to do with Olive (with just the barest of references to brief comments she had made to characters in these stories as a teacher, years before). I'm wondering, did the publisher tell the author she needed to add another hundred or so pages to the book?
Dorothy T.
Pulitzer Prize worthy
(Really a four and a half)
Olive is someone I didn't like, then I did, then I didn't, and at the end she was someone I was able to understand and accept for who she was. I am certain there is a lesson or two for each of us in this well paced and intriguing work.
This is definitely a great choice for a book club.
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