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This book left me wondering about the Pulitzer Prize committee's recent obsession with connected short stories, as if the narrative plot of a more traditional novel must seem passe, since two out of the last four winners have been connected short stories and they skipped a year. The book had a little bit of Spoon River Anthology feel to it, with everything revolving around Olive Kitteridge instead of the graveyard. This slice of small town life feels real and human, which is what you want from y
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I adore stories that highlight the beauty and complexity hidden in the ordinary. This book is a masterpiece; an examination of what it means to be human in small town America, but the themes are universal. Bittersweet and bitingly honest... dark, but with silver lining woven throughout. Each vignette was so rich, I could only handle one per night, like a box of extremely dark chocolates.
This puts words to things I have no words for but which lurk truthfully under the surface of our every day.
(And one of its recurring themes is doughnuts.)
(And one of its recurring themes is doughnuts.)
This book is reminiscent of Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, OH. I think of the book as "doughnuts and suicide!" "Hells bells" would work too. Olive, who appears in each of the short stories, is such a well-written character - at turns moody and mean, and others generous and genuine. I can't adequately describe how moving this book was; it will definitely stay with me for a long time. Elizabeth Strout certainly deserved the Pulitizer for this work!
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Thirteen stories are linked through a common character, and what a character it is... Olive Kitteridge! I thought of Scrooge, peering at windows of different scenes of people's lives...each one with its own joys and sorrows... Here you see Olive from the perspective of her friends.
Headstrong Olive lives in Maine. She is a retired teacher with a husband and an adult son, both with their own issues. She will bring you close to tears or she will get herself into hilarious situations that make you ...more
Headstrong Olive lives in Maine. She is a retired teacher with a husband and an adult son, both with their own issues. She will bring you close to tears or she will get herself into hilarious situations that make you ...more
This will be a book worth discussing. I can't say that I enjoyed reading it, but I would recommend it and would love to talk about it. So many of the stories are depressing and involve strained family relationships. But as others have said, Olive is a unique character with a unique perspective on many issues. Loved the last chapter and her rants on Republicans and Bush. A nice comic touch to a very serious group of stories.
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This book was beautifully written, raw and powerful, but it is one of the most depressing books I have ever read. Themes are aging, illness, suicide, dysfunction, etc. Several scenes were like a literal punch to the gut and it was hard to read over a holiday weekend!
I kept telling myself this was supposed to be a great book & I didn't like it. It felt very scattered & if it were any longer I would have quit after the first 50 pages. Maybe it was just bad timing ...
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Jul 14, 2009
Laura
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Oct 05, 2009
Efe
marked it as to-read
Nov 25, 2009
Tanya
marked it as to-read
Mar 09, 2010
Jen
marked it as to-read
Nov 17, 2010
SandyC
marked it as to-read
Feb 01, 2013
Terri
marked it as own
Jul 13, 2015
Diane
marked it as to-read
