Review: Olive Kitteridge (by Elizabeth Strout)

 My Rating: 4 stars

I recently got approved for an ARC of Elizabeth Strout’s latest work Olive, Again, which is the sequel to her Pulitzer Prize-winning Olive Kitteridge back from 2008.  Seeing that I don’t usually like to read sequels without first having read the original, I decided to take a break from working through my miles-long ARCs list so that I could get acquainted with Olive in preparation for tackling the sequel.  Despite having many of her books on my TBR, Elizabeth Strout is another famous author whose works I’ve not had the chance to read yet (what can I say except “too many books, too little time”), so I actually welcome the opportunity to finally experience one of her works for myself.  

Going into this, I will admit that I was a bit apprehensive at first, since I had heard that this book is written in a unique “novel in stories” format – that is, the book is comprised of 13 short stories, all set in Crosby Maine, told from the perspective of different characters, yet the stories are all linked together through the one character of Olive Kitteridge.  I’m usually not a fan of short stories, as I don’t like the “abruptness” that the short story format naturally lends itself to – I prefer novels with a full-length story that has a beginning, middle, and ending…a more in-depth story that I can immerse myself into, with characters that I can watch grow and develop over time.   But of course, this book is not your typical short story collection in that each story is connected through Olive, the one constant who somehow manages to make her way into each story, oftentimes subtly and unpronounced (except in the stories where she is actually the central character).   In some of the stories, Olive is a quiet presence; in others, she is a force to be reckoned with – regardless of how she may appear though, Olive’s distinctive “voice” as a character is strongly felt throughout the book.  I appreciate the interesting way Strout decided to approach the character of Olive in here – even though she is not the main character in most of the stories, we (as readers) still get to see her growth and development as she grapples with the various situations that occur in the town.  Olive is an interesting character – definitely not the “tolerable” type, and at times, she even comes across as downright annoying, but there was a certain authenticity to Olive as a character that made her really come alive for me despite her limited appearance in many of the stories.  In terms of the writing, this was smoothly and beautifully written, with what I felt was a solid balance of subtleness versus fierceness where it was warranted.  In the way Strout depicted the mundane and the minutiae of everyday life while providing insight into the trials and tribulations that many of us are bound to encounter, there was a resonance to each of the stories presented here.  

This was definitely a different reading experience for me, one that I enjoyed immensely more than I expected.  As I get ready to tackle the sequel in the coming days, I look forward to revisiting Olive and her “irrational sensitivities” once again.