O: The Oprah Magazineįiction lovers, remember this name: Olive Kitteridge. Olive is the axis around which these thirteen complex, relentlessly human narratives spin themselves into Elizabeth Strout s unforgettable novel in stories. People USA Today The Atlantic The Washington Post Book World Seattle Post-Intelligencer Entertainment Weekly The Christian Science Monitor San Francisco Chronicle Salon San Antonio Express-News Chicago Tribune The Wall Street Journal NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY Olive Kitteridge offers profound insights into the human condition its conflicts, its tragedies and joys, and the endurance it requires. In a voice more powerful and compassionate than ever before, New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Strout binds together thirteen rich, luminous narratives into a book with the heft of a novel, through the presence of one larger-than-life, unforgettable character: Olive Kitteridge.Īt the edge of the continent, Crosby, Maine, may seem like nowhere, but seen through this brilliant writer s eyes, it s in essence the whole world, and the lives that are lived there are filled with all of the grand human drama desire, despair, jealousy, hope, and love.Īt times stern, at other times patient, at times perceptive, at other times in sad denial, Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher, deplores the changes in her little town and in the world at large, but she doesn t always recognize the changes in those around her: a lounge musician haunted by a past romance: a former student who has lost the will to live: Olive s own adult child, who feels tyrannized by her irrational sensitivities and Henry, who finds his loyalty to his marriage both a blessing and a curse.Īs the townspeople grapple with their problems, mild and dire, Olive is brought to a deeper understanding of herself and her life sometimes painfully, but always with ruthless honesty.

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Olive kitteridge reviews new yorker