Olive Kitteridge

Very difficult to come across such sensitive writing now a days. It is like a classic novel set in present day environment. Brings out vividly emotions, feelings and values that propel our behavior. Her characters are real and you can easily identify them in people around you. After reading Elizabeth you tend to understand people better and treat them with more sensitivity.A wonderful read.

In the coastal town of Crosby, Maine, lives Olive Kitteridge, a retired math schoolteacher. Mercurial, caring, fiercely practical, Olive doesn't concern herself with what we're taught to focus all our lives on - being liked. But life's knocks come hard and random irrespective of personality traits, and Olive and her townspeople are about to realize the same.This was a wonderful book about ordinary people trying to live through the aches and pains that come with being a human. In a small town where everyone knows everyone's business, we come across characters that deal with alcoholism, disappointments, abandonment, loneliness, depression, and all those things that are spoken in hushed tones in social gatherings.The writing had a melancholy to it that resonated with me. I binge read the last 100 pages at one go. Olive is a character that Deborah Levy would love - complicated, independent, and unconcerned with being liked.This book came close to a perfect rating but somewhere in between, the focus went to other characters and Olive was a tangential presence at best. I can't explain how that should factor into this rating but it just did. Until the last chapter or two, it felt more a portrayal of the town than Olive herself which made me wonder why the book was titled after her, and why the blurb emphasized her journey.

So very common and universal the story moves touching almost every commoners that when it ends, I could place myself almost in every chapter, without even realising that I could ever be an idea fit for a story.

A series of heartfelt, touching stories which lull you along as though you were part of them. What I loved about these were that they were reminiscent of the Maugham short stories where nothing dramatic happens, no doctrines are set out and they are "just stories": just narrating the characters' everyday lives, thoughts, little incidents, prejudices and loves: just, in fact, life.

Great

Loved the characterisation; didn't enjoy the disconnected narrative too much at first but once I realised there were separate stories about real people around Olive, I utterly fell in love with the book.

Without a shadow of doubt, it is emotionally sprawling, and definitely with a twist of classicism, extremely beautiful

I loved this book, the writing of E. Strout is sublime. But Olive - OMG, what a horrible woman !I think in the whole book there was perhaps two times coming from her mouth (or even her thoughts !!!!) something nice. I must say, it ruined the book a little bit for me - to read about such a despicable woman like that, it makes your hair stand upright. How she treats her husband, her son and ALL the people around her... I hated her. Needless to say, I will NOT order the 2nd book "Olive again", lol !I ordered another book of Strout instead, as she is really a wonderful, admirable author.

What an amazing book! At times unbearably sad, at others always so insightful into, not only the characters’ lives and feelings, but also most of the world’s emotions and experiences.The mini series (which I have not seen) has Frances McDormand as Olive, but I can’t picture her as Olive, a big brusque woman with so many flaws but so very human and “real”.

No es exactamente una novela, más bien una concatenación de episodios enlazados entre sí, a veces de modo tenue. El foco no recae exactamente sobre Olive K. sino sobre la comunidad en la que ella vive, mostrándonos las idas y venidas de sus integrantes. ¿Es triste el tono de la novela? sí, lo es. Pero no exagerada sino adecuadamente triste. Más bien realista. Lo que ocurre es que la protagonista, y sus convecinos, han catado su dosis de derrota (y quizás de victoria), como todos nosotros.Está maravillosamente escrito. Eso sí, demanda nuestra atención porque cada frase cuenta, porque percibir el matiz exige concentración. No explica los hechos de modo directo, sino que va sembrando el texto de sugerencias, de alusiones, y al final todo encaja de modo que cada capítulo deviene una perfecta obra de orfebrería.

Olive Kitteridge is a Pulitzer Prize Winner for fiction, which is breath-taking in its beauty and eloquence. The structure of the novel is 13 episodic stories, which provide a candid and searching insight into a small community in the coastal town of Crosby in Maine. It would be unfortunate to race through the pages without savouring the atmosphere, the wonderful sense of time, and the rich array of fascinating characters that enhance the human relationships on display. It takes the little breaks between stories to reflect on the mastery of prose and the observational expression of Elizabeth Strout.Olive Kitteridge is the indomitable presence throughout the book. Some stories have the faintest mention of Olive while in others she impacts with the overbearing resolve of a woman that is determined to get what she wants. Olive is rarely the focal point, but she acts as a magnet drawing each story to exist in her presence.Olive is an ex-school teacher, a tall and often clumsy woman, but as the years progress she becomes big,“… her ankles puffed out, her shoulders rolled up behind her neck, and her wrists and hands seemed to become the size of a man’s. Olive minds – of course she does; sometimes, privately, she minds very much. But at this stage of the game, she is not about to abandon the comfort of food, and that means right now she probably looks like a fat dozing seal wrapped in some kind of gauze bandage.”Olive has a formidable presence and a complexity that is intriguing and undefinable. While she offers very little filter in her comments and consideration of others and thinks it ludicrous to cry at weddings, she cries when she sees a young anorexic girl, Nina.“Olive shook her head again, blew her nose. She looked at Nina and said quietly, ‘I don’t know who you are, but young lady, you’re breaking my heart.’‘I’m not trying to,’ said Nina, defensively. ‘It’s not like I can help it.’‘Oh, I know that. I know.’ Olive nodded.”The first story is a touching story of her husband, Harry, who is a pharmacist, and his relationship with a young married assistant who tragically loses her husband. The relationship is subtly transformed from a platonic friendship to the delicate suggestion of deeper feelings as he allows himself to imagine what life would be like with this young woman. The emotional conflict burdens him until he finally asks Olive if she would ever leave him. “Oh, for God’s sake Henry. You could make a woman sick.” she responds.Most of the following stories reverberate with a sense of betrayal. You can feel the connection with the characters, laugh through incidents, be astounded by some events, nod in recognition with many, and shed a tear or two at others. The writing is emotionally stimulating and reveals such vivid moments that give breath to sentiments you may not have been expecting.This is a wonderful reading experience, infused with beautiful prose, images and feelings that we all encounter or witness throughout our lives. I would highly recommend this book. The reason why I jumped to read this book after it sitting on my bookshelf for so long, was that the sequel, Olive, Again, is due for release on 31st October this year.

Adorei o livro, pela oportunidade de ver a vida numa pequena cidade do Maine, EUA, com personagens que parecemos conhecer.