Olive Kitteridge

Starred review from December 10, 2007
Thirteen linked tales from Strout (Abide with Me
, etc.) present a heart-wrenching, penetrating portrait of ordinary coastal Mainers living lives of quiet grief intermingled with flashes of human connection. The opening “Pharmacy” focuses on terse, dry junior high-school teacher Olive Kitteridge and her gregarious pharmacist husband, Henry, both of whom have survived the loss of a psychologically damaged parent, and both of whom suffer painful attractions to co-workers. Their son, Christopher, takes center stage in “A Little Burst,” which describes his wedding in humorous, somewhat disturbing detail, and in “Security,” where Olive, in her 70s, visits Christopher and his family in New York. Strout’s fiction showcases her ability to reveal through familiar details—the mother-of-the-groom’s wedding dress, a grandmother’s disapproving observations of how her grandchildren are raised—the seeds of tragedy. Themes of suicide, depression, bad communication, aging and love, run through these stories, none more vivid or touching than “Incoming Tide,” where Olive chats with former student Kevin Coulson as they watch waitress Patty Howe by the seashore, all three struggling with their own misgivings about life. Like this story, the collection is easy to read and impossible to forget. Its literary craft and emotional power will surprise readers unfamiliar with Strout.

March 24, 2008
Strout's tale of an aging schoolteacher too obsessed with the deterioration of her little town of Crosby, Maine, to realize the problems plaguing her own life, is read with vigor by Sandra Burr. Burr's reading makes Strout's characters rich and wonderful in every way, bringing a well-rounded originality to each one. As Olive, Burr's voice slips into a nagging, aged groan that seems perfectly suited for the central character's downtrodden personality. As Olive's husband, Henry, Burr is understated yet powerful. She understands this poignant tale so entirely that her reading becomes reality for the listener. There is a certain melancholy that infects this story, and Burr is poised to capture and relate it to her audience. Simultaneous release with the Random House hardcover (Reviews, Dec. 10).

February 1, 2008
In her third novel, "New York Times" best-selling author Strout ("Abide with Me") tracks Olive Kitteridge's adult life through 13 linked stories. Olivea wife, mother, and retired teacherlives in the small coastal town of Crosby, ME. A large, hulking woman with a relentlessly unpleasant personality, Olive intimidates generations of community members with her quick, cruel condemnations of those around herincluding her gentle, optimistic, and devoted husband, Henry, and her son, Christopher, who, as an adult, flees the suffocating vortex of his mother's displeasure. Strout offers a fair amount of relief from Olive's mean cloud in her treatment of the lives of the other townsfolk. With the deft, piercing shorthand that is her short storytelling trademark, she takes readers below the surface of deceptive small-town ordinariness to expose the human condition in all its suffering and sadness. Even when Olive is kept in the background of some of the tales, her influence is apparent. Readers will have to decide for themselves whether it's worth the ride to the last few pages to witness Olive's slide into something resembling insight. For larger libraries. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 12/07.]Beth E. Andersen, Ann Arbor Dist. Lib., MI

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from January 1, 2008
Hell. Were always alone. Born alone. Die alone, says Olive Kitteridge, redoubtable seventh-grade math teacher in Crosby, Maine. Anyone who gets in Olives wayhad better watch out, for she crashes unapologetically through life like an emotional storm trooper. Sheforces her husband, Henry, the town pharmacist, into tactical retreat; and she drives her beloved son, Christopher, across the country and into therapy. Butappalling thoughOlive can be, Stroutmanages to make her deeply human and even sympathetic, as areall of the characters in this novel in stories. Covering a period of 30-odd years, most of the stories(several of which were previously published in the New Yorker and other magazines) feature Olive as theirfocus, but in some she isbitplayer oreven a footnote while other characterstake center stage to sort through their own fears and insecurities. Though loneliness and loss haunt these pages, Strout also suppliesgentle humor anda nourishing dose of hope. People are sustained by the rhythms of ordinary life and the natural wondersof coastalMaine, and even Olive is sometimescaught off guardby lifes baffling beauty. Strout is also the author of the well-received Amy and Isabelle (1999) and Abide with Me (2006).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)