Olive, Again

The world that Olive Kitteridge lives in is one where the people, the interactions, and the locations are all very ordinary, yet very real. Elizabeth Strout's style of writing is simple yet precise: she attends to speech habits and ordinary actions in a way that reveals the complexity of even the commonest of situations and relationships.

I met her at a conference in Ireland, where she discussed how the characters in her books just "come to her." I took this to mean that she is always tuned into the ways people struggle to plot their lives and interactions, and Strout… show more.

Olive is not a likable character, yet so many readers related to her in the first book, as I did. Strout took a completely different approach in this sequel, which appealed to me even more. We see the larger community in Olive’s life, looking at her through her interactions with friends, neighbors, and a lover who becomes her second husband.

Strout weaves present and past using these different perspectives, showing the rare kindnesses that Olive allows herself. By the end, she was a hero to me because of her changes as a person—the increased compassion tempered her frankness.  A brilliant… show more.

In these hilarious and often tender interconnected stories, Strout takes off where Olive Kitteridge (her previous book) ended, following her husband’s death. Olive is once again charting new territory with her grown son and his children, a particularly moving and unsentimental story about their visit. After her son leaves, Olive grapples with loneliness and turns to Jack Kennison, a man who is also struggling with his own strained relationship with his daughter. Together they form an unlikely couple, discovering a new realm of intimacy neither expected.  Relationships are at the centerpiece of this collection, and each story gives a glimpse… show more.