Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout is a book of short stories- well maybe not short stories but chapters which are separate but which link back to Olive Kitteridge in some way. I wasn’t expecting this. For some reason I thought it was a full length novel about Olive Kitteridge. Now anyone who reads my blog knows that I’m not a fan of short stories but I will say I enjoyed this book although not as much as I would have had it been a full length story. I read it for my book club, The Page Turners, as our November read.
The story takes place in the small town of Crosby, Maine. Some of the stories are about the people in the town and some are about Olive herself, a retired school teacher, but all the stories do relate to Olive in some way or another whether it be something she said or something she did to the person in the story being related.
At first I really didn’t like Olive. I found her rude and quite mean to her husband Henry who seemed kind of sweet to me. Yet as the novel wore on I came to feel more sympathy towards Olive and even liked her. I think Olive used this hard exterior as a way to protect herself. Underneath it all I think she was a very vulnerable person who had a lot to give; she just didn’t know how.
This book really is quite simple yet not simple at all. It’s about people – the good and the bad. Some of the stories are depressing but still when you finish reading them, you find yourself sitting there and thinking about the story and the people it’s about, especially Olive. It’s about a town and all the little and big things that may happen there. It’s about life and getting older and all that goes with that and realizing that all the small moments in life end up being huge ones when the people you shared them with are no longer there.
This book deals with a lot of issues including marriage, infidelity, children and aging. There is definitely a lot to talk about in terms of choosing this book for your book club. For myself, I did enjoy the book but I think that I probably didn’t get all that it has to offer out of it. It could be the time I read it or just the fact that it’s portrayed in the short story type format which I’m not fond of. I’m glad I read it and will say that it kept my attention throughout and even a week or so after I finished it, I’m still thinking about Olive and her life so I’d say that says a lot about her character and Elizabeth Strout’s writing.
For another much better review than mine of Olive Kitteridge, take a look at my fellow book club member Toni’s review coming from A Circle of Books.
My Thanks…to myself. I purchased this book and it came off my very own bookshelf.
I did borrow this book but I never did give it a fair chance, perhaps I really should after this review
This book has been on my list to read ever since it made EW's top 10 books for 2008. Sometimes I wonder what the heck I am reading!
I was surprised at the format, too, but I ended up loving it. Great review.
Our book club has considered this a couple of times… maybe I'll bring it back up. Thanks for the review!
Our book club read this book as well this year. I think it was my favorite! I absolutely loved Olive by the end of the book! She reminded me of a female Archie Bunker!
I had heard that this book was short stories. I don't care for short stories either. So many books look so good to me then I realize they are a collection of short stories and then am instantly not interested..
I don't read short stories either. I have Olive K…but have avoided it because of this. Maybe since you read it I will delve into it. Thanks. 🙂
This is one I have sitting in my TBR room waiting to be read. I'm really curious to see how I take to the short story format of the novel. I guess it's fortunate that I've grown to like short stories quite a bit in the last year or so.
Thanks for your great review, Darlene!
I have seen so many reviews of this book but i think that yours somehow is one of the most appealing to me. Probably because it's the first one where this book isn't praised to high heaven lol! I always get suspicious about books like that.
Happy New Year to you Dar and your loved ones! May it bring all you wish for!
Happy New Year, Dar!
I hadn't really thought about this book but your thoughts about the small moments being big things when the person is no longer here, well that really caught my interest.
I see our internet library loan service has it available altho it is out now with a waiting list. Looks like about 10.5 hours audio.
I loved this book! I read it as soon as I saw that it won the pulitzer prize for 2009. Check out my review here. http://www.bellasnovella.com/2009/04/olive-kitteridge.html
I really liked this book. Happy New Year to you!
I bought this book a couple of months ago and have been reading great things about it. It sounds like a book I am really going to like, though I am sorry you didn't love it. If you haven't read it, Strout has another book out there called Amy and Isabelle and I thought it was just brilliant. I hope you will try that one, as I think it might fit your tastes a bit better. Great review!
I've had this on my wish list for a while. I'm not a huge fan of short stories either, but I still want to read it. Glad you enjoyed it.
What are you talking about woman! I loved your review. You said a lot of things that I couldn't commit to words for some reason. Thanks for the link.
Blodeuedd, I read it for my book club. It's possible I may have quit on it sooner had it not been for that but in the end I'm glad I didn't.
Wendy, Wisteria, I'm like that as well. Short stories don't do much for me. I think this may be only the 3rd or 4th one I've ever read.
Zibilee, I'll check out Amy by her. Maybe the library has it.
Thanks everyone else for stopping in and leaving me a comment.
I'm sorry. I know this is supposed to be a great collection of short stories, as it's recognized well, but the shorts are boring. I think I might have just picked this one up at the wrong time. I'm going through this thing, where I don't really like fiction in the third person. I'm finding the third person narrative to be irritating, corny, trite. The leaves did this, and the sun did this to the building. It's trite. It's exhausted. We all don't have very much time these days, and save for the awful reason to just stop and smell the shitty roses, I really am finding that fiction has to say something; come out with it already. I'm impatient. I'll try it again in a month.
Great review. I'm linking to your review on my blog.