Olive Kitteridge (edição 2008)

This was a reading group book and I didn't think I'd like it as it is a book I would never voluntarily pick up. So to my surprise I did enjoy it quite a lot. I listened to the audio although I did have to speed up the reader a lot as it was far too slow. I thought it was quite disjointed at times but then the appendix explains that as they were all short stories originally and published at different times. Some stories I liked more than others and they were usually the ones more focused on Olive herself rather than those where she is just the hook to hang the story on. I aslo was slightly frustrated at times that we did not find out what happened later e.g the suicidal man, the airport arrest. But it was far more enjoyable than I expected. ( )

The characters and their situations felt very authentic to me. Olive herself was not an easy character to like, but she was complicated and the author did a great job having the reader see her as she is and appreciating her for it. It was a great look at small town life as well as aging and how it can affect people. It was a great book that I would recommend to others. ( )

Each chapter is a short story that includes Olive as a main or supporting character. It's a great format if (like I do) you like to read a chapter in the coffee shop or before bed and then put a book down, satisfied. I warmed up to Olive as each chapter revealed another aspect of her character and her effect on the people in her community. I'm in the stage of life where a lot of it—with its passions and disappointments—is behind me, and that may be one reason I found this book so appealing. ( )

My book club chose to read this book, and I was excited since I hope to read all of the Pulitzer Prize winners at some point. I confess that I found it hard to get into the book until one of my friends said that it was essentially a book of short stories, all tied together through the character of Olive. That mindset changed how I read the book and how I enjoyed it. I found Olive to be very multi-dimensional and complex, and I grew to like her more and more as the book progressed. The chapters truly had the feel of short stories; there often wasn't a great deal of detail, and the reader is left to decide some things on their own, which suits that genre. ( )

This is a very clever collection of (not very) short stories, each with a different protagonist, but in each of which Olive Kitteridge appears - sometimes as a major character, sometimes just in passing, sometimes even just as a mention. The themes are often deep and sometimes sad - humanity, relationships, loss, hope, ageing, coping - but somehow also beautiful. I'm not generally a fan of short story collections, but Strout demonstrates extraordinary skill. The writing is tight, elegant, simple yet complex. There is no purple prose here, no needless exposition. There are enough details to set a scene, to create an atmosphere, to describe a character's feelings and actions, to introduce the reader to each of the characters and to draw them all together into a whole.

I realised quite early on that this shouldn't be a one-session book, but that instead, each story should be relished. I therefore deliberately left at least a day or two after reading each one before going back to this, and indeed, the stories stand alone as well as together. I very much look forward to reading more of Strout's work. ( )