Novels Now

Olive Kitteridge
By Elizabeth Strout
Completed August 13, 2008

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout was a novel comprised of thirteen short stories about people living in rural Maine. Several of the stories were based on the title character, but many of the stories only showed us a glimpse of Olive. From any perspective, Strout provided her readers with an enjoyable cast of characters and their life stories.

Olive was a retired teacher, married to Henry, and the mother of one son, Christopher. As a teacher at the same middle school for years, she had the rare opportunity to know most of her neighbors through school. Olive was flawed, often depicted as angry, condescending and sharp-tongued. However, in other chapters, Olive showed many favorable characteristics, helping her former students and fellow townspeople in small but significant ways.

Through this quilt of stories, the readers – and Olive –gleaned lessons of loving and living. One of my favorite thoughts from Olive Kitteridge was at the very end: “…that love was not to be tossed away on a platter with others that got passed around again. No, if love was available, one chose it, or didn’t choose it.” Though Olive’s life story, I learned something about my own life and choices (good and bad) that I’ve made.

The character of Olive Kitteridge with her detestable moments in one chapter and her tender moments in another made her real and alive to me. She was a cantankerous old lady with a heart of gold. Indeed, she will go down as one of my favorite literary characters.

If you enjoyed the structure of Winesburg, Ohio or the small-town writing style of Richard Russo, then grab Olive Kitteridge. But even if you don’t, grab this book anyway. I think most readers of contemporary women’s fiction can find something to like in Olive Kitteridge (and I bet it will be Olive herself). ( )

But the gesture, the smooth cupping of the little girl’s head, the way Suzanne’s hand in one quick motion caressed the fine hair and thin neck, has stayed with Olive. It was like watching some woman dive from a boat and swim easily up to the dock. A reminder how some people could do things others could not. -From Olive Kitteridge, page 64-

Elizabeth Strout has crafted a unique novel - one told in a series of stories linked together by one character: Olive Kitteridge. Olive is a retired school teacher living in the small, coastal town of Crosby, Maine. She is a fully imagined, complex character whose honesty, bitterness, anger and compassion intersect the lives of the townspeople, as well as her family. Married to Henry, the local pharmacist whose kindness and patience is recognized by all, and raising a single child - Christopher - Olive reveals a mixture of compassion and resentment toward the people who pass through her life.

Strout devotes full chapters to Olive and her family, but makes room in other chapters to examine the lives of more minor characters such as Kevin, a boy still grieving for his mother; Angela O’Meara, a talented local piano player who relies more and more on vodka to get through her days; Harmon, a man looking for love and Daisy Foster, a widow with a heart of gold; an anorexic teenager named Nina; Jane and Bob Houlton, growing old together; Marlene Bonney, the grocer’s wife, who discovers a secret beneath her own roof; and the Harwoods who live in the country without a flush toilet. It is through the lives of all the characters, that Strout examines the complexities of Olive’s psyche.

Written with warmth and and insight into the human condition, Olive Kitteridge uncovers what it means to survive day to day in our ordinary yet individual lives. Although there are moments of despair and sadness, Strout also treats the reader to Olive’s wry sense of humor, such as when she is visiting her adult son, Christopher and his wife in New York:

Olive could barely eat her dinner. She had thought Christopher was going to grill hamburgers. but he had grilled tofu hot dogs, and for the grown-ups had, of all things, diced up a can of oysters and poked them into these so-called hot dogs.

“Are you okay, Mom?” It was Ann who asked.

“Fine,” said Olive. “When I travel, I sometimes find I”m not hungry. I think I’ll just eat this hot dog roll.” -From Olive Kitteridge, page 208-

It is moments like this that allow the reader to forgive Olive’s weaknesses - her sudden temper, her cutting remarks, her tendency to lash out at those she loves the most. Olive’s ability to recognize the needs of others is far superior to her insight into her own motivations and fears, and it is this tendency to erect barriers which is Olive’s biggest challenge.

Elizabeth Strout has given readers a finely written novel about what it means to be human and how our every day lives touch others.

Recommended; rated 4/5.