Olive Kitteridge (Olive Kitteridge, #1) in Around the World in 80 Books

Feb 16, 2015 Sera rated it it was amazing

Shelves: literary-fiction, audio, favorites, library, own, plays-short-stories-etc

Olive Kitteridge is a book with many stories about the inhabitants of a small town who in some way or another have a connection to Olive. Olive is a cranky, judgmental woman who needs to mind her own business more than she does. Like most people, however, Olive just wants what most people want - to be loved, accepted and to have more control of the events that occur around her.

I highly recommend this book, because Strout takes many different threads and is able to weave them into one overall coh ...more

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May 08, 2019 Colleen Chi-Girl rated it liked it

Shelves: 2019, 0-dnf

After months, I decided to not finish this. The writer is very talented in creating really well developed characters, but I’m not a fan of disjointed short stories. Most importantly, I found the main character Olive, to be depressing, negative, and cantankerous; ie, a major bitch. I grew completely weary of her and her meanness, and I have too many other interesting reads waiting for me. With this decision I did weigh the fact that I’m going to miss the opp to find out if she changes but i figur ...more

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Dec 30, 2021 Pam rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, 2021-books-read, maine

AUTHOR . Strout, Elizabeth
TITLE Olive Kitteridge
DATE READ 12/24/2021
RATING 4.5/B+
FIRST SENTENCE
GENRE/PUB DATE/FORMAT/LENGTH Fiction/2019/hoopla audio/12h2min
SERIES/STAND ALONE #1
CHALLENGE Good Reads 2021 117/120
GROUP READ
TIME/PLACE 2017 ME
CHARACTERS Olive Kitteridge/teacher
COMMENTS It took me quite awhile to really catch on but the last 1/3 was very good and now I want to read Olive, Again.

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Nov 28, 2019 Mansir rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: library

I read this book mainly while I was sick. I'm not sure I would have finished it otherwise. It's very well written - her beautiful human writing transports you into the lives of a community in Maine. The readers experiences quite a bit. At times it felt like it was getting close to a great American novel but the book is happy to just portray lives without weaving and orchestrating connections between them as much. And, so, at the end, I didn't experienced whatever it was that the Pulitzer Committ ...more

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Oct 15, 2010 Annie rated it really liked it

This book was very good in that I didn't put it down until I flipped over the last page. However, it was frustrating to see such a well-developed character change so little. I suppose that's what makes it so realistic - how often do we actually experience radical epiphanies, despite the upheavals in our lives? ...more

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Nov 29, 2017 Nikki Morse rated it liked it · review of another edition

I enjoyed this, in spite of not really liking Olive herself. I’m surprised it won a Pulitzer. And as late as 2008 I’m shocked writers were still using the word queer. It may have gotten a 4th star weren’t it for that, but it’s so jarring in a contemporary book.

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