The best book I've read this year. The structure - a portrait of a woman and a town told in 13 stories - is so much more powerful than a linear story. People reveal themselves in bits and pieces over time and Olive does too. I know Olive and the people of Crosby ME. My life is full of them. Incredibly moving, powerful and true. ( )

This book grabbed me with its first story, about the friendship between Olive Kitteridge's husband, Henry, and the young woman who worked at his drugstore. Strout captures private moments and musings beautifully throughout the book, and creates vivid settings with a few, well-chosen words. She understands the ambiguity of feelings and imperfections that every husband, wife, son and daughter experiences. The title character is revealed to different degrees in each story, and the book covers most of her adult life. She is only one of many well-developed characters, but the fact that much is unexplained makes the book all the more interesting. The stories were written over a long period of time and published here and there, but as a collection they hang together well, with a couple of exceptions (the exceptions are why this is a 4 1/2 and not a 5). For me a book is great when I want to start reading it again as soon as I finish it, and I keep thinking about it long after reading it. This book had both of those effects on me. ( )

Olive Kitteridge is a good book, well written. Its reach is impressive, yet its grasp is perfectly firm. This is a series of related short stories, all of which refer, overtly or no, to the character Olive Kitteridge. Olive is one of the most arresting and memorable literary figures I’ve “met” recently, but she is surrounded by a dazzling panoply of others. Strout is masterful with characterization, and does much with little in each story. We see Olive most often through the eyes of others–her husband, neighbors, and son.

Yet we also see them through her eyes, and its a dizzying feat of perspective, pulled off so well I didn’t think to wonder how Strout managed to create umpteen authentic voices.

The stories progress in linear time, though with flashes to the past. Each can stand on its own, yet together they form a complex whole. Olive is a woman of strong opinions, and she often irritates those around her, including the reader. Yet I found her by the end irresistible. Olive’s honesty, her pain, and any hard-earned joy she’d won were a pleasure for me to read about. ( )

http://www.bostonbibliophile.com/2009... ( )

Don't try to read this if you are tired or ready to go to sleep. Watch for the foreshadowing - an interesting tale of life in a small Maine town. I do identify with Olive which is scary. ( )

I reallly enjoyed this book. It brings Maine to life and I think the method of fusing interconnected storis bring her to life.

simply wonderful. e. strout just makes time, place, and people so real. ( )

I loved this. Being from Maine, I felt like it was very authentically 'Maine', from the speech patterns and atmosphere to phrases like 'Jeezum Crow', which I haven’t heard myself in at least 13 years. Add to that Olive’s occasional resemblance to my great-grandmother, and in a lot of ways reading this book was like visiting home. It’s not a particularly happy book, though there is a little bit of light at the end. Sometimes Olive is the center of the story, sometimes she’s a bit player, and sometimes she’s just walking by, but she always makes a mark. Olive’s life is hard, and there’s so much you really don’t know about her, which you realize during her heart-wrenching visit to her son’s home in New York. I think the thing that sticks with me the most is the tangible love between Olive and Henry, which is most apparent when she calls to talk to him at the nursing home and maintains her one-sided conversation. Overall, it’s just a beautifully constructed collection of stories. ( )

I think I liked the Olive character a lot more than most people (judging from the NPR interview I heard with the author). Not sure what that says about me. Great little stories about intertwining lives in a small Maine town. ( )

very interesting and unique writing style. a great book - would absolutely recommend. ( )

You read it and you think that's exactly what you do not want to happen to you when you get old, even though you somehow know it is going to be like that. ( )

Short stories about live in a small Maine town that weave into each other. Touching, delicately wrought fiction. ( )

Olive Kitteridge is a collection of short stories, some published previously in periodicals, which bear the common thread of touching on the character of the title character. In a few of the stories, Olive, a large woman and retired middle school math teacher, is the central character. In some of the stories we see Olive as others in her family and community see her. And in at least two stories, Olive makes only a passing appearance much like Alfred Hitchcock walking briefly through each of his movies.

In this way, we see Olive's character reflected in many ways, not all of them flattering. At the same time we see glimpses of the community and its underpinnings. The seasons, fauna & flora, and the water of the bay and river figure prominently in the motif of the stories. They lend an atmosphere of hope, longing, sorrow, and loss.

In the latter third of the book, Olive spends much time in what she calls the "bump out room" of the home that she and Henry built. This seems to represent some sort of waiting room where she looks over the tulips and waits for the next stage of her life begins. Perhaps in some ways this book is a coming of age story for the boomers who are also moving into that next, late, unexplored phase of life.

This is a book that definitely improves with a discussion group. ( )

Beautiful and thorny collection of stories set on the Maine coast. The characters are not always likeable, not always 100% sympathetic, but always human. ( )

I was not a big fan of this book and am surprised that it won the Pulitzer.

"Olive Kitteridge" consists of a series of short pieces written about the personal and internal lives of folks in a town on the coast of Maine. These glimpses show us so clearly, in language unerring and deceptively simple, folk that aspire against all hope for love, fulfillment, even survival. Sometimes the piece illuminates an episode from Olive's life, sometimes Olive plays only a cameo in this or that person's current crisis.

And the crises abound in this collection. Lives and marriages and families tread the razor's edge, hoping for the day when that blade can become something a little more stable, a little less threatening. Mostly, though, we get a character's forced accommodation; he or she must give up the grand hope or design for the lesser but more realistic outcome. Disappointment, even desperation, inevitably follow, and Olive is no exception. People struggle with inner demons here, some more severe than others. Olive's own demons put her at odds with others, often for no overt reason. Olive has little patience for anything or anyone, especially after her affable husband Henry becomes ill. Her son, from whom she feels estranged, and with reason, invites her at length to New York to meet his second wife - he didn't tell her he'd married again - and after Olive loses her composure and her patience, he confronts her calmly with the fact of how difficult she is. To Olive, it's an outrage, and she feels cast adrift again.

Olive Kitteridge the character is one exceptionally fine fictive creation. We come to know her, loudmouthed and irascible, through a series of encounters, and we know how she will react in any situation. This very slowly and very subtly changes over the course of the stories, and in this under-the-surface mutability Strout performs her ineffable and exraordinary trick: Olive the obdurate, Olive the obstreperous, begins to discover, very, very late in life, what it might mean to acknowledge her own and someone else's need.

Ms Strout takes us along at a careful pace, but doesn't spare the emotions. These oblique peeks into these tortured internal lives and dialogues capture us and capture our sympathy. And Ms Strout has certainly captured an avid fan. ( )

A series of stories that are connected by their locale and the presence of the character, Olive. They are mainly slice of life stories - well written though not always terribly compelling. ( )

A beautiful collection of stories ( )

An interesting portrait of Olive Kitteridge, a unique and fairly appalling middle school math teacher in a small Maine town. Each chapter is a different story of someone in the town, and Olive morphs a little bit in her connection to each character. Though I normally wouldn't be drawn to "a novel in stories," Olive was a strong enough character with enough facets to keep me intrigued. Each chapter was thought-provoking and I think I got much more from Olive than I would have expected. Recommended. ( )

As I'm sure some of you already know, I'm not too fond of short stories - although I did purchase this with the hopes of enjoying it since they seem to be loosely related stories with one particular character, the ubiquitous Olive Kitteridge. And as expected Olive does appear in every story in the book - sometimes just merely by name, other times it's a cameo appearance, but her presence is definitely felt throughout these vignettes into the lives of some of the residents of Crosby, Maine.

Now let me shed some light on the infamous Olive Kitteridge. Olive Kitteridge = a bit nasty, a little on the heavy side and definitely older. That description alone should give you a feel for exactly what we're dealing with here.

As you go from story to story you read about Olive, her friends, relatives and acquaintances scattered throughout Crosby, Maine. And I will confess that the stories in this book will have you thinking not just about the fictional characters Ms. Strout has created, but about your own life and that of your friends and family. These are very real life characters that you can easily associate with yourself.

With that said, sadly, I just never got around to "really" liking any of the characters. Don't take me wrong, Olive was a force like no other. When she came into a room (or a story) her presence was definitely made known. But I think it made me feel preoccupied... in the sense that I was looking forward to Olive. When was she going to enter the story? How did this person know Olive? Was she their teacher? Was she a neighbor that lived down the road? Olive, Olive, Olive. In the end, I found it to be distracting.

I honestly thought the premise was unique and clever. And, needless to say, Ms. Strout's writing is superb... but in the end it just never clicked for me. I'm not sure if that was because the stories were too short or I just had "too" high expectations for this, but sadly it just fell flat for me. ( )

Full disclosure: I didn't read the whole thing. It was like spending a winter in Fargo. Nothing really changed, I was miserable and couldn't wait to get out. I think I'm perhaps not smart enough to have gotten the whole gist of the book. That's probably true. ( )

Olive Kitteridge is a novel rendered through the combination of thirteen linked short stories. The stories introduce the eponymous and unforgettable Olive Kitteridge and cover the gamut of the human condition. Throughout her life, Olive plays many roles--wife of Henry, mother of Christopher, math teacher, and resident of Crosby, Maine. While she interacts with many others in these roles, she tends to maintain an emotional distance and a gruff exterior that makes her seem cold and difficult to understand.

The stories told revolve around Olive's relationships with other denizens of the town and with her husband and son as she ages and attempts to make sense of life and the changing world. The stories show people struggling to make meaningful connections. Some of Olive's final revelations remind me of the same conclusions drawn in Thornton Wilder's Our Town about the value of the ordinary and appreciating the small moments that make up our lives.

Towards the end, Strout writes of Olive, "And if her platter had been full with the goodness of Henry and she had found it burdensome, had flicked it off crumbs at a time, it was because she had not known what one should know: that day after day was unconsciously squandered." Olive Kitteridge contains much sadness but also many salient reminders for us about seizing the day and not taking the moments or the people in our lives for granted. ( )

I did not really like this book. There was really a lively discussion in my book club about it, so that in itself was interesting, and we had differing views about what happened to some of the people. But I found it kind of depressing. No one ever felt better, or moved on with their lives. I got about 3/4 of the way through it and wondered why I was reading it. ( )

I have mixed feelings about this book. Olive is one of those people you can't ignore, and I'm sure she would be difficult to live with, yet the more I read about her, the more I liked her. She doesn't sit around and wait for life to happen -- she lives it, one day at a time, with all of its ups and downs. The stories about Olive were what kept me going through the book. I quickly grew tired of the stories about the other people. They didn't have much in common other than that they all live in the same community, they all know Olive to some degree, and they all are at a turning point in their lives. Their stories were just long enough to showcase their miseries, but not long enough to make me care about their pasts or futures. I'm glad I read it once, but Crosby, Maine, isn't a place I'll want to revisit. ( )

I put the book off because I was a bit intimidated by it being a Pulitzer Prize winner. I was afraid the book was one that I would struggle through, and I am happy to say these fears were completely unfounded. Olive Kitteridge was very readable, very enjoyable and one book I wouldn't hesitate to recommend to others.

Olive is a fascinating character. I love how you get to know her through stories that feature her, as well as those where she plays a very small part. Olive isn't the most likeable character, but she is one that I got. I understood her motivations and her reactions, and I think most people can find a little of themselves in her. I was a little surprised at how small a role Olive played in some of the stories, but each glimpse and mention of her added a little more to her character.

I loved the format of Olive Kitteridge. The novel told in stories worked wonderfully. Olive was the force holding all the pieces together, but the stories of Olive's neighbors were beautiful too. I loved the small town feel, where everyone knew each other and their paths often overlapped. I have Strout's other books and can't wait to dig them out now. ( )