Olive Kitteridge (Olive Kitteridge, #1) (edição 2008)

I had the title of this book written down on a list of books I wanted to read, and for the life of me I can’t remember why I’d listed it. But it popped up for 99p on Kindle, I remembered the title, and my finger went straight to the “buy now” button. And having now read it, I still can’t remember why it was on that list. It won the Pulitzer Prize, but I’ve never read a book simply because it won that prize – although I’ve read books that have won it. Olive Kitteridge reminds me a great deal of Marilynne Robinson’s fiction – and I’m a huge fan of her novels; signed first editions only sort of fan – but it doesn’t have the warmth and easy domesticity of her prose. It’s set in small town USA, a foreign country of not much interest to me, north or south, and any familiarity I might have with that world, in broad stroke, is down to a shared language only and the vigorously exported parts of a culture that has pretty much inundated the rest of the Anglophone sphere. The novel is about the eponymous woman. It’s part of a fictional universe built up over several works – in this case, all contained in this “novel”, and a later novel published in 2019. Olive Kitteridge is actually a collection of linked stories, in which the title character appears, either as the PoV character or in a supporting role. She was a maths teacher at the local school, but is retired at the time the novel opens. The comparison to Robinson is not entirely unfair – both writers detail a small community in their fiction, telling the stories of several interlinked families. The Wikipedia page for Olive Kitteridge boasts a complete cast of characters from the book – that’s eight families, and half a dozen assorted other groups. Strout manages to make her characters believable – although one or two seem to be defined solely by a couple of traits – despite the fact most of them only appear for a handful of pages. Much as I enjoyed the Olive Kitteridge, I doubt I’ll bother with the sequel. ( )

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. ( )