Olive Kitteridge

Sandra Burr's smoky voice, cast with a Maine accent, is perfect for portraying no-nonsense Olive Kitteridge. Burr's range is also large enough to characterize the men, children, and more soft-spoken women Olive encounters. Designed as a collection of short stories, the novel takes Olive from young adulthood to her senior years. She's not featured in every story; in some she makes only brief cameos that serve to depict her small town and its residents. Burr is strong in capturing the comfortable marriage of Olive and Henry, and their strained relationship with their son. Listeners will long remember Burr's characterization of Olive and her struggles with both common and uncommon problems. J.J.B. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

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).

Kimberly Farr has previously narrated two other Elizabeth Strout novels, earning Earphones Awards for both. Her clear grasp of Strout's characterizations and the flow of her delivery are, therefore, not surprising but remain praiseworthy. While named for a single, recurring character--an emotionally unpredictable yet surprisingly sympathetic one--OLIVE KITTERIDGE uses a village of coastal Maine personalities to create its intimate portrait of communal and solitary life. Olive's relationship to her husband and son form the core of the novel, but it's her relationship to the town that binds the disparate stories within this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel together. The many who fell for Olive back in 2008 will be delighted to revisit her through Farr's astute retelling. K.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award � AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine