Olive Kitteridge

Book Review by Reader Maid

Reader Maid reviewed the audio version of this "novel in stories."

Olive Kitteridge - by Elizabeth Strout

The audio version of Elizabeth Strout's Pulitzer Prize-winning book Olive Kitteridge describes it as "a novel in stories," which is a very accurate description of this haunting collection of sketches that capture the most private reflections of the many wounded souls of Crosby, Maine.

Many of the stories feature Olive as a central character but in others she makes only a cameo appearance.

While listening to the narrator reveal the scars and painful longings of those who never managed to "belong," I found myself frequently reminded of the Beatle's song, "All the Lonely People, where do they all come from?" From Olive, a retired math teacher whose father committed suicide, to the aging alcoholic piano player in the local bar abandoned by her married lover, to the young anorexic who starves herself to death, the unifying theme is alienation and loneliness and its impact on those around us.

Strout paints a brutally honest portrait of the ravages and redemptions of love. I have never experienced a novel that got it so right; whether we want to acknowledge its truth or not is another matter.