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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Great for remembering where you are in life and where you’re going
Elizabeth Strout has another winning novel. I read it in one day, because I couldn’t put it down. Her characters strut from the page into the reader’s imagination; they are fully described and become alive. The individual short stories blend into a recital of life in a small Maine town.
Elizabeth Strout never disappoints. Just always feels as if I’m coming home again with her books. Get comfortable, curl up, and lose yourself in the story – before long the characters become part of your own family. They always seem to remind me of someone I know…
Elizabeth Strout is a gifted writer. Her prickly character Olive once again comes to life as an authentic, witty and very honest character. Olive astonishes with her sometimes old-fashioned views about living, and, yet, because of her ability to see with so much clarity, she transcends the everyday with grace and poise.
Interesting, sad
At first, I wasn’t as impressed with this as I had been with Olive Kitteridge. I didn’t care for Olive’s love interest in this one, though her reason for being with him — sheer company — was thoughtfully conveyed. More toward the end, however, Strout’s remarkable insight of human nature emerged again in Olive’s musings, especially on aging. At the end, I sighed deeply again (as in the first Olive), wishing it could continue on.
Olive, Again –the sequel to Olive Kitteridge–is every bit as wonderful to read! Be sure to read these in order to get the most from both. This is not a feel good read, it is exploratory: Aging, infidelity, the pain of not fitting into the ‘normal’ expectations of others, and of depression. I loved both books and got a new perspective on aging and loss. Don’t miss these!
I was very happy to revisit Olive!
Very real portrayal of New England (Maine) to the core. We all know a retired school teacher who talks like this. Sharing Olive’s thoughts is so endearing despite her gruff exterior. Really admire how easily Olive connects to people – or not.
Meh
Olive Again was as good or perhaps even better than Olive Kitteridge. Characters portrayed so realistically and dialogue that swept me into these people’s lives. I hated to finish the book. I miss Olive.
How can you not love Olive. She may be the most irascible main character in any book I’ve read in a long time but I just loved her tendency to speak the truth no matter who was going to react badly to it. I laughed out loud at her many times. I hated to have this delightful book end.
I did not read original Olive Kitteridge, and not inspired to do so, after reading Olive Again. I’m age 65, and helping care for my 90 year old mother post fracture surgery, so can relate to subject of aging, fear of dying, loneliness, depression post loss of spouse’s and friends. However, I found this book a little odd, not really my cup of tea.
Heard about Olive Kitteridge for years and finally got to read it. Then More Olive on Book Bub. Happy me. Hard to describe yet a book I didn’t want to end.
Was not worth reading. Just filthy language and no worthy story to compensate.
Disappointing subject matter.
Oddly captivating, but I would recommend mostly for mature readers. It may not be tor everyone.
As with the first book of this pair, OLIVE KITTERIDGE, the format is not a typical novel. It’s a series of vignettes, all told in third person, centered upon different people in the small town of Crosby, Maine. The outspoken, complex Olive figures in many but not all stories, and perhaps because this form is the same as the first book, I didn’t find this book as fresh and original. However, there are elements in Strout’s writing that I particularly admire and love. The first is the way she places us in a scene and in a character’s subjectivity with extraordinary economy. Here’s the first line (which caused me writer envy): “In the early afternoon on a Saturday in June, Jack Kennison put on his sunglasses, got into his sports car with the top down, strapped the seatbelt across his large stomach, and drove to Portland–almost an hour away–to buy a gallon of whiskey rather than bump into Olive Kitteridge at the grocery store here in Crosby, Maine.” One sentence and we have place, two people, an intense emotion (wanting to avoid), some insight into Jack’s circumstances, and a sense that we are in the hands of an observant, wry, humorous narrator. The second thing I love is that Strout shows us the disparity between two people’s interpretations of the same event; that’s part of the point of the book, I think, and is enabled by this structure. For example, Jack can’t remember the name of a woman he met in the grocery store; Olive saw them together and felt jealous. Third, she doesn’t shy away from some of our deepest feelings–shame, love, fear of death, a longing for connection. She homes in on these small moments of belated understanding–when, for example, a character realizes that he had, as a child, accepted the derogatory name “Frenchie” without much thought, but in fact it probably hurt him even then, at some level. And–again, economically–she shows characters at particular pivotal moments, laying bare the uncertainty as they face a new truth. Here’s Jack: “What frightened him was how much of his life he had lived without knowing who he was or what he was doing. It caused him to feel an inner trembling, and he could not find the worlds … there had been a large blindspot directly in front of his eyes. it meant that he did not understand … how others had perceived him. And it meant that he did not know how to perceive himself.” An enjoyable read, full of humor, compassion, and humanity.
I love the character Olive Kitteridge, and I loved revisiting her in this book, although not quite as much as in the original book “Olive Kitteridge,” which was one of the best books I’ve ever read. How wonderful that Strout can make us care about, and even love, such a difficult character.
Love the author’s way of touching on the conundrums of issues by using stories that are linked through the title character, Olive. I find myself lingering on Ms Strout’s books – wishing them to not end.