On to the next.....
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout is one of the best books I've read in quite some time. I was clueless about this book until a coworker asked me if I had it in the library at the start of the school year. Apparently, this book managed to win a Pulizter Prize without me knowing it. Okay, so I let one slip...and what a good one it was, too!
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout is one of the best books I've read in quite some time. I was clueless about this book until a coworker asked me if I had it in the library at the start of the school year. Apparently, this book managed to win a Pulizter Prize without me knowing it. Okay, so I let one slip...and what a good one it was, too!
This book is exactly my type of book. Set in a small northeastern town along the coast, we see the ins and outs of small town life through the venerable Olive Kitteridge, a former teacher and local bastion of cynicism. I think I fell in love with Olive straightaway because she reminded me so much of my grandmother. Not grandmotherly in the least but crass and williing to speak her mind at the drop of the hat. Very endearing, really!
In short vignettes, we meet the characters of the town one by one, and take a trip into the back rooms of their lives and see, in the words of a famous song, "...who's cheatin' who, and who's being true." Olive's character weaves in and out of each vignette, in some way impacting each life we get a chance to spy upon. Throughout the book Olive, grows, too. From a woman who is cynical and doubts that there is good in anything, to one who sees the possiblities of a new life late in the game. Dedicated to her husband, she sees him through a stroke and stands by his side until the end. She even comes to salvage some sort or relationship with her distant son Christopher all before she finds her second chance at love.
