NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout continues the life of her beloved Olive Kitteridge, a character who has captured the imaginations of millions.“Strout managed to make me love this strange woman I’d never met, who I knew nothing about. What a terrific writer she is.”—Zadie Smith, The Guardian“Just as wonderful as the original . . . Olive, … Guardian
“Just as wonderful as the original . . . Olive, Again poignantly reminds us that empathy, a requirement for love, helps make life ‘not unhappy.’”—NPR
NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY PEOPLE AND ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Time • Vogue • NPR • The Washington Post • Chicago Tribune • Vanity Fair • Entertainment Weekly • BuzzFeed • Esquire • Real Simple • Good Housekeeping • The New York Public Library • The Guardian • Evening Standard • Kirkus Reviews • Publishers Weekly • BookPage
Prickly, wry, resistant to change yet ruthlessly honest and deeply empathetic, Olive Kitteridge is “a compelling life force” (San Francisco Chronicle). The New Yorker has said that Elizabeth Strout “animates the ordinary with an astonishing force,” and she has never done so more clearly than in these pages, where the iconic Olive struggles to understand not only herself and her own life but the lives of those around her in the town of Crosby, Maine. Whether with a teenager coming to terms with the loss of her father, a young woman about to give birth during a hilariously inopportune moment, a nurse who confesses a secret high school crush, or a lawyer who struggles with an inheritance she does not want to accept, the unforgettable Olive will continue to startle us, to move us, and to inspire us—in Strout’s words—“to bear the burden of the mystery with as much grace as we can.”
Praise for Olive, Again
“Olive is a brilliant creation not only because of her eternal cantankerousness but because she’s as brutally candid with herself about her shortcomings as she is with others. Her honesty makes people strangely willing to confide in her, and the raw power of Ms. Strout’s writing comes from these unvarnished exchanges, in which characters reveal themselves in all of their sadness and badness and confusion. . . . The great, terrible mess of living is spilled out across the pages of this moving book. Ms. Strout may not have any answers for it, but she isn’t afraid of it either.”—The Wall Street Journal
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Olive Kitteridge is one of my favorite books of all time. It was nice to spend a little more time with dear Olive in this book as she copes with getting older. She’s hard to describe because she’s a bundle of contradictions; at times raw, rude, honest and clear-eyed, and at other times baffled, scared and lost. That’s what I like about her, I think; she represents universal struggles.
I can’t really explain why I love Olive Kitteridge, and now, Olive, Again as much as I do. But I’ll try. First, there’s Olive. She’s impossible to straight out love, but then again, I feel such a huge affinity for her, such affection. And it got stronger in the new book! Second, there’s the writing. Elizabeth Strout is a master of observation, and of, simply put, amazing sentences that flow effortlessly. I am reading Olive, Again aloud to a friend, and I just treasure the way each scene unfolds in these practical, seemingly perfect sentences strung together.
Thank you, Elizabeth Strout for bringing Olive back!
4.5 stars
To my shame, it’s my first book by the author and obviously I need to read the first book ASAP which I will for sure as this story was one of the best books of this year for me.
I loved everything about it and have no words but great ones for the characters, world build and the writing style.
That’s the way to get my attention. I Love it!
Elizabeth Strout’s OLIVE, AGAIN delivers again. The sequel to OLIVE KITTERIDGE, which earned a Pulitzer and starred the marvelous Frances McDormand in an HBO mini-series, is satisfying, while thoughtful and sad–and that’s just fine. Olive is “an old bag,” according to at least some who know her, and she could care less what they think. She doesn’t have much of a filter, so she says it like it is. And in doing so, she opens people up when they would otherwise be closed. The sequel starts off with her marriage to Jack, an unhealthy, witty, lovable sort who sees the real Olive. She has a son — off in the distance — whom she loves but is not so doting that she doesn’t realize he has his own life and problems (the wife and kids). Olive is now in her eighties, resigned to certain changes she must make, but she is still Olive. I want to meet her again. Olive has more to say.
Very unique way to write a novel. Characters introduced many connecting to the main character and some not. Told the life story of a widow who connected to many in many different ways.
Elizabeth Strout’s Olive, Again only confirms her as one of my favorite contemporary writers of literary fiction.
The temperamental Olive in her later decades demonstrates qualities that only come with experience and self-reflection, enabling her to be an instrument of grace to others. She is still a straight-shooter who sees things unvarnished, her truthfulness sometimes abrasive.
The stories in this book revisit characters from Strout’s fictional world of Crosby, Maine.
This was a hard story to read. At age 67, my husband and I have undergone several surgeries this year. I am all too aware of the brevity of life and how we allow ourselves to be propelled through the years impassively until some change in our abilities stops us up short. We reconsider our mistakes; our view of the past and its relationships become torqued with new understanding. We wonder how we could have allowed love to become a battleground, fear to fence us from our dreams. We become invisible, an unwanted portend to others of their own inevitable future. We recognize that we are strangers to each other–and are incomprehensible even to ourselves.
What kind of life can we live in these ever-shortening days? The answer is in the line that had me in tears: “I think our job–maybe even our duty–is to–” Her voice became calm, adultlike. “To bear the burden of the mystery with as much grace as we can.”
Life is a mystery. People are a mystery. There are no answers, no easy to follow instructions to guarantee success and happiness.
Like Ranier Maria Rilke wrote in his Letters to a Young Poet, we must “be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves like locked doors and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”*
I don’t know if Olive’s story is completed. And I am not sure I want to follow her to her end. It’s all too close to home. Strout is a fearless writer who dares to confront us with things that disturb our equilibrium. We recognize ourselves in her characters.
I read a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.
An enthralling collection of family stories linked by Olive Kitteridge, a woman whose shocking bluntness summons beauty and love–even transcendence. A masterful work.
There is no better stylist today than Elizabeth Strout. Character is everything—Through her we bear witness to what it means to human—to love and to fear—in what is said with few words, and what is not said in the spaces in between, in body language. Olive Kitteridge was a masterpiece and she is deftly drawn again in Strout’s new book – Olive, Again.
I loved the first Olive book, and this one was also a fine story – or set of connected short stories – as well. This was more bitter sweet, getting older isn’t much fun and it is confusing and frightening at times. But are a lot of truthful and perceptive scenes in both Olive Kitteridge books, and I can recommend them both. Excellent writing.
Have read ALL her books and loved them!
different and interesting
A must-read for fans of Olive Kitteridge. Olive becomes more reflective and self-aware as she ages, and I was surprisingly inspired.
Just okay.
I love every book by Elizabeth Strout that I have read. This is the fourth.
Loved Olive! What a character!
I felt sad about a lot of this Olive story because I could identify with a lot of the things going on in my own life.
Olive Kittredge returns in this book. Like mostof Elizabeth Strout’s books, it’s hardto classify asa novel ora collection of short stories. Olive,tough and opinionated, faces widowhood, remarriage, a heart attack, and other challenge of old age,with her can-do attitude.
So many characters in Olive’s life. Her moving on after her husband’s death and really seeing things around her. Loved it
** spoiler alert **
Five beautiful stars. Did you expect anything less?
Oh my gosh, what a great story. I loved it as much – maybe even MORE so – than OLIVE KITTEREDGE. As with all good books I would think about it during the day, and looked forward to being able to get back to it.
Each chapter was filled with interesting, unique people, who had, in some way found themselves crossing paths with Olive Kitteridge. But, it was always the Olive chapters that stood out for me, with the exception maybe of Fergus McPherson – ay-yuh, he ran a close second. His chapter made me laugh out loud.
Olive’s chapters, and particularly the final pages were poignant. We see Olive have epiphany upon epiphany as we follow her self-awakening, her realizations of who she is, how she was, her reflections on her interactions with others, and finally, her acceptance about herself. She shines on the page as she comes to terms with her life, and the realization that part of her fear was that of being lonely and that of death. Truly brilliant writing, and character study.
LOVE – HIGHLY RECOMMEND! (less)
Sad. I’m 75 and it’s was just sad.