Book Review
Apr. 17th, 2010 09:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariOlive Kitteridge
by Elizabeth Strout
This novel won the Pulitzer Prize in 2009, and, I think, deservedly so. It is in the form of a series of short stories spanning about three decades, set in the small town of Crosby, Maine, and centering around the character of Olive Kitteridge, a middle school math teacher. Many of the stories, especially the earlier ones, are told from the perspectives of other people in the town, so that we get to know Olive through the way her friends and neighbors see her. Olive is a complicated and prickly woman; she is often brusque, stern, and even callous, but she is also often compassionate, patient, and helpful. I rarely found Olive likeable, but I always found her interesting. There were times I was thoroughly irritated and exasperated with her, and other times I felt warmly sympathetic towards her.
Strout does a truly wonderful job of bringing the everyday griefs, joys, and trials of ordinary people to life, and showing the reader their depth and richness. No matter how ordinary or small they are, the events of these people's lives are never rendered banal or boring. That's the greatest beauty of this book, that it shows the beauty and profundity of the utterly ordinary.
by Elizabeth Strout
This novel won the Pulitzer Prize in 2009, and, I think, deservedly so. It is in the form of a series of short stories spanning about three decades, set in the small town of Crosby, Maine, and centering around the character of Olive Kitteridge, a middle school math teacher. Many of the stories, especially the earlier ones, are told from the perspectives of other people in the town, so that we get to know Olive through the way her friends and neighbors see her. Olive is a complicated and prickly woman; she is often brusque, stern, and even callous, but she is also often compassionate, patient, and helpful. I rarely found Olive likeable, but I always found her interesting. There were times I was thoroughly irritated and exasperated with her, and other times I felt warmly sympathetic towards her.
Strout does a truly wonderful job of bringing the everyday griefs, joys, and trials of ordinary people to life, and showing the reader their depth and richness. No matter how ordinary or small they are, the events of these people's lives are never rendered banal or boring. That's the greatest beauty of this book, that it shows the beauty and profundity of the utterly ordinary.
