Review: Olive, Again (by Elizabeth Strout)

My Rating: 4 stars

In this sequel to the Pulitzer Prize-winning Olive Kitteridge, we once again get to revisit the town of Crosby, Maine and our old friend Olive, who is now entering her sunset years in what is possibly the last decade or so of her life, with new husband Jack in tow. As fierce and brash as ever, Olive is still insufferable at times and continues to be stubborn to a fault, but yet, she also seems more empathetic this go around, which I attribute to the fact that she has come to a somewhat better understanding of herself (ok, perhaps only slightly, haha).  Of course, Olive being Olive, the usual brutal honesty is expected, but she has also learned to be a bit more aware of other people's feelings and in that regard, understands how to let things go a little when circumstances call for it (though still depends on who she is interacting with).  

Structure-wise, we have the same short story format told from the perspective of different characters, nearly all residents of Crosby (with a few returning characters from the first book), but this time, I felt like more of the stories centered on Olive, and even the stories that were about others seemed to incorporate her presence a bit more directly.  For some one like me who is not a huge fan of short stories, this continuity of course worked better for me, since it made this read less like a series of short stories and more like a continuous novel.   One of the things I appreciate most about the sequel compared to the original is that this time around, we get more humorous moments with Olive — not that she deliberately tries to be funny, it's just that seeing the way she would react to certain situations made me chuckle (such as the entire baby shower segment and also her row with Jack about flying first class).

The original Olive Kitteridge was written in 2008, while this sequel Olive, Again was just published last month (October 2019).  To be very honest,  this book doesn't feel like it was written 11 years after the first one — when I picked it up and started reading, the transition between the 2 books was so seamless that I felt like I was merely continuing on from the first book.  Elizabeth Strout's writing continues to be masterful and despite only having read 2 of her books (so far), she can already be counted amongst my list of favorite authors.

Olive is the type of character who will probably never be "endearing" (she herself would never permit it anyway), but she IS a character who, like those in the most beloved of classics, will live forever in the hearts of readers like me who were lucky enough to have made her acquaintance.  I will most certainly miss Olive, but I am also grateful for the amount of time (the span of two books) that I was able to spend with her.

Received ARC from Random House via NetGalley.