Olive, Again (Olive Kitteridge #2)

Angela M

Rating: really liked it
Elizabeth Strout is such a keen observer of human nature, of our shared condition and she reminds us that life is full of a struggle of some kind for pretty much all of us. In Crosby, Maine you’ll find characters dealing with loneliness, infidelity, alcoholism, sickness, aging, death, regrets, so many regrets. Thankfully, there also is friendship and love and empathy that Olive Kittridge finds within herself to give, because the truths about life are dauntingly sad at times. More than once I stopped between stories to take a breath. This is Crosby, Maine, the small coastal town where our old friend Olive Kittridge lives. In reality it could be anywhere, but of course it wouldn’t be the same unless Olive was there. She’ll tell you exactly what she thinks about you in brutally honest words. She’s not the best wife or mother and honestly she can be pretty brash, but it becomes obvious, though, that in spite of the things she says she cares. I found at times her softer side, her more vulnerable side that aren’t alway evident. I can’t say I liked Olive very much when I started reading Olive Kitteridge, but by the end of that book I realized how many people she had positively impacted as a teacher and as a neighbor. And by the end of this book, I thought how lucky some of these characters were to have Olive in their lives and I felt for Olive as she endures her own challenges.

As in the first book, Strout skillfully weaves separate stories together, with Olive as the thread, but these books for me felt like novels. On the one hand it’s Olive’s story as she reaches her seventies and eighties . She’s older and maybe a little more self aware, but always trying to understand herself. She’s the center of a number of the stories and we come to know more about her as she comes to know more about herself. Some of the stories will give you that gut punch, when Olive comes to painful moments of recognition about her family, her friends and acquaintances and of course herself. In some of the stories she makes a real connection and engages with another character and only makes an appearance in others. Crosby and this book are populated with realistic characters, including Olive who are filled with fears, flaws, frailties that are easily recognizable in ourselves. What can I say about the writing, other than its impeccable. I felt the pull of these characters from the opening lines of pretty much every story. Strout is a fabulous story teller and is on my list of favorite writers. I definitely recommend that Olive Kitteridge be read first in order to fully appreciate the place in her life where Olive has come at the end of this book.

I received an advanced copy of this book from Random House through NetGalley.

Paromjit

Rating: really liked it
No-one can write like the incomparable Elizabeth Strout, her understanding of what it is to be human and penetrate the beating heart of what comprises a community has a universality that cannot fail to resonate with the reader, sometimes perhaps uncomfortably so in the truths it lays bare, such as the physically and emotionally taxing process of ageing. Olive returns, maybe not everyone's cup of tea, but definitely mine, indomitable, outspoken, cantankerous, a larger than life presence in the lives of those around her, an indisputably influential woman, even if it is sometimes in the slightest of appearances in the stories that pour forth about the community of Crosby, Maine, from the pen of Strout. Olive lives through her seventies and eighties, getting married for the second time to 74 year old Jack Kennison, who may find Olive irritating on occasion but loves Olive, all that she is, the two finding a companionship that eases the loneliness of losing their spouses and getting older.

Olive is aware of her shortcomings as a wife to Henry, she misses him, an ache that never disappears even as her life appears to move on, and as a mother to her son, Christopher, when his family come for a rare visit, there is a palpable awkwardness and a moment that opens her eyes as she perceives him as a motherless child, but, who as becomes apparent later, despite everything, loves her. We encounter a piano playing teenager who cleans homes, acquiring cash from a strange and silent transaction with a husband. A daughter cannot bear her inheritance from a morally bankrupt father and his profits from dubious investments in South Africa, she finds solace and faith in the company of her lawyer, Bernie. Bernie is finding it difficult to come to terms with many of his morally reprehensible clients, whose behaviour he has facilitated through the years. There is a family's conflict as it comes to terms with a daughter starring in a documentary of her life as a dominatrix. Strout does not shy away from darker aspects of community, such as the abuse, the toxic families, and the challenges of alcoholism, infidelity, cancer, and the feelings of despair, the pain, and the tears. Olive faces regret and loneliness, becoming considerably more self aware as she ponders over the mystery of who she is and the joys and wonder of love that can sprout from the most unexpected of places.

Strout is an exquisite storyteller, subtle and nuanced, who gets to core of a person and a community with a simplicity that is breathtaking, and does so with grace, humanity and compassion. Her portrait of Olive is outstanding, multilayered and complex, in the way she depicts Olive, getting older, more invisible, lonelier, but still striving to live, connect and learn, about herself and others. This is a profoundly moving novel, captivating in its portrayal of the everyday ordinariness and extraordinariness of its characters, an approach that packs a punch in its gut wrenching emotional honesty. Simply brilliant and highly recommended. Many thanks to Penguin UK for an ARC.

Elyse Walters

Rating: really liked it
Powerful emotional truthfulness - and unforgettable narrative:
Brilliant novel!!!!

Olive was aware of ludicrous behaviors- unspeakable things spoken - but what she did not understand is why she and her son, Christopher should walk into old age with a high and horrible wall between them.

Olive could be blunt, forthright, frank, and candid.
She had strong opinions- and judgements... she hated people who were late.. etc.
I happened to feel as strong as Olive did about a scene at a baby shower:
“A third gift was presented to Marlene’s daughter, and Olive distinctly felt distress. She could not imagine how long it would take this child to unwrap every goddamn gift on the table and put the ribbons so carefully on the goddamn paper plate, and then everyone had to wait—‘wait’ — while every gift was passed around. She thought she had never heard of such foolishness in her life”.

It was easy to understand Olive’s impatience and judgements. Of course she kept her thoughts to herself - but they were so human.
I could just picture that baby shower— the happy smiling guests - but also Olive - at 70ish years old... and her annoyance.

Another scene was puzzling and quite disturbing. I honestly wondered - where in the world was this coming from.
Kayley, was a young girl who took pleasure and money from a man - Mr. Ringrose - whom she cleaned house for - while unbuttoning her blouse. He watched - said thank you - then left her an envelope with cash. This went on for nine weeks.
“There was no one Kayley could tell about what had happened, and this knowledge stayed in her and made her almost constantly unwell”.
I won’t say how the short story ends... but it’s one to scratch your head with wonder.

I wasn’t prepared to feel so sad in some of these short stories- but I did.
Olive barely made it though a visit with her son, Christopher - his wife, Annabelle- and their three kids.
Olive was exhausted. Some quiet cruelty- coldness - was making me feel depleted. I felt so sad witnessing the detachment and bitterness between the bratty children and their grandmother - the imperfections of Olive never being able to do anything right - not even having enough milk or Cheerios...
My heart was breaking for the pain of ‘each’ of the family members... but I especially felt sad for Olive.
To have to feel rejected - judged by your adult children and grandchildren ‘while’ dealing with aging has got to really hurt. It’s a lonely hurt - that author,
Elizabeth Strout soooooo masterly and gracefully understands. Her skill of unraveling the complexities of family life and relationships is written with deep compassion for humanity.

It was so easy to imagine the different characters muddling through - carrying on - enduring the necessary sorrows and joys of their lives well beyond the pages.

This book could easily be a stand alone. Strout binds
together rich narratives - crafted much like she did years ago with her Pulitzer winning novel “Olive Kitteridge”... with great insights, tensions, humor, startling sadness, and compassion.

One of the most emotionally radiant novels about family- and what divides us in our relationships- and definitely about aging....that I’ve read in years.

Olive who has become a baggy old woman - thought about this:
“ The way people can love those they barely know, and how abiding that love can be, even when — as in her own case — it was temporary”.

Kudos- huge kudos and congrats to Elizabeth Strout for writing - ‘again’ a keenly observed lustrously imagined marvelous novel.

Thank you Random House, Netgalley, and the astonishing Elizabeth Strout

Irena BookDustMagic

Rating: really liked it
Edit: After receiving backlash for my subjective opinion on this novel, I don't even bother to reply to your negative comments, and I report and delete all the comments from fake accounts.


Once again I didn’t do my homework, and went into Olive, Again without knowing it was a sequel to already published book called Olive Kitteridge.
Nevertheless, this book can be read on it’s own.
However, if I read it’s predecessor, I would just skip this one for sure.

I’m not saying this is a bad book, because, judging by other readers’ and critics’ reviews, it is a really, really good book, but it wasn’t for me.
I just couldn’t see it’s greatness, I guess.

I think that the main reason why I couldn’t connect with the story was that the main character, Olive, is so much older then me.
This is the thing I realized while reading this novel: I just can’t enjoy the story, connect with it if the characters are so much older then me (we talk here about 70+ years old characters, and even 80+ as the story progressed).
Therefore, thanks to this piece of literature, I made a decision not to read books featuring old main characters any more (at least at this period of my life).

The second issue I had with Olive was that I didn’t like her as a character at all. I know she is described as honest, outright and ruthless, but to me, she often came as just rude.
I just didn’t like her energy and I could not care for her or what was going on in her life, and it especially showed as I was further into the story.
I caught myself scanning the last 50 pages of the story because I just wanted to be finished with it.

It is a shame, I do know, but it is what it is!

Also, when it comes to writing style my expectations were pretty high because this novel is labelled as literary fiction, which stands for beautiful prose.
Unfortunately, I was very disappointed because it read as simple general fiction.

Still, I have to note that the book covers some pretty important things and some of the stories that involved other characters were interesting.

On the other hand, there were some situations that made me feel uncomfortable (like when Olive said that it was stupid that an adult man cries aloud, and even if he’s Jewish, it’s still stupid).

In the end I’ll just repeat that Olive, Again is very loved book and I am aware that many people won’t agree with my opinion.
As for me, I won’t be reading Elizabeth Strout’s other work because I don’t think I would enjoy it at this stage of my life.

Read this and more reviews on my blog https://bookdustmagic.com

Peter (on hiatus)

Rating: really liked it
Introspection
Olive, Again is a novel that is boldly observant, honest and searches for apperception. The story of the indomitable Olive Kitteridge follows on two years after her husband Henry’s death. Olive is a little more introspective on how she, as a person, her behaviour and relationships have evolved as she ages into her eighties, especially as she experiences loss and loneliness.

Two years after Henry’s death, Olive starts a relationship with Jack Kennison, which is touching and meaningful. Jack is also a widower with some history, where an unfortunate affair and dubious sexual assault claim with a colleague ended his career as a Professor at Harvard University. Jack’s relationship with Olive develops and while it creates new possibilities and feelings it opens the door on how they behaved towards their respective spouses. How they both missed them and how they feel about each other. It also sparks the realisation that people hide emotions and worries they can’t explain, which subconsciously agitates prejudices towards the world. Olive is a person who doesn’t step reservedly into how she perceives the world and how quick she is to comment about people in it. As Jack notes,

“People either didn’t know how they felt about something or they chose never to say how they really felt about something. And this is why he missed Olive Kitteridge.”

Olive uncloaks her deepest disquieting memories and reflects for the first time that she may have contributed to the broken or strained relationships she had, especially with Henry and her son, Christopher. Considering her marriage to Henry, she reflects that as the years passed the more distant her heart became and the needier his became. Wondering about her son’s marriage, Olive catches a glimpse of some hidden moments. The door to their relationship slightly opening. Peering into the interior and seeing what she was not meant to see. “Her son had married his mother.” This was how Olive had behaved to her husband, not realising that “… she herself had raised a motherless son.”

The novel delivers what a special book does beyond entertainment; it creates the scope to connect the writing to our own stories or those not far away. It enables us to view issues through a different lens and wonder are these the events we couldn't face or appreciate. We push these notions into the darkest corners of our mind and wrestle with them when we let them loose. Several are let loose in this novel with outcomes of remorse, pain, heartbreak and guilt.

While I felt the first book had an overarching theme of betrayal this book searches for understanding and resolution and uses various threads to provide amazing glimpses into the difficulties people face in life, especially with the burden of illness, family misunderstandings or psychological trauma. The scenarios are intriguing and captivating and along with beautiful prose and astounding characterisations, this book is a joy to read. I felt this book was slightly better than the first. It was much less a work of short stories and more a solid narrative of Olive with threads that expand around her.

This is one of my favourite books of the year and it certainly didn’t disappoint after the long wait for the sequel. I highly recommend reading this book and I'd like to thank Penguin Books, Viking and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC version in return for an honest review.

Will Byrnes

Rating: really liked it

“When you get old, you become invisible. It’s just the truth. And yet it’s freeing in a way…You go through life and you think you are something. Not in a good way, and not in a bad way. But you think you are something, and then you see that you are no longer anything. To a waitress with a huge hind end you’ve become invisible, And it’s freeing.”

Sometimes people come into your life at just the right time. People you have known turn up, unexpected, and you re-engage, begin again. It was like that for Elizabeth Strout. She was sitting alone in a café in Norway, minding her own business, when Olive inserted herself into her life once again, in her car, nosing her way into a marina, cane in hand. I saw it so clearly—felt her so clearly—that I thought, Well, I should go with this. (from the New Yorker interview). It’s not like Olive Kitteridge had been totally absent from Strout’s life. They had parted ways after Olive won Strout a Pulitzer. But there were bits of her around, pieces of story that did not quite work, material for somewhere, somewhen. But the image was stronger this time, whole, a large presence, demanding attention. And so, it was back to Crosby, Maine, back into the life of a difficult, but complex character, crusty, quick to scorn, but with a warm, perceptive core.


Elizabeth Strout - image from the Irish Times

Olive, and the other characters in Olive, Again, face the ongoing problem of loneliness, among other things. Thematically, this is very much in line with the original Olive Kitteridge, focusing on relationships, considered both in retrospect and in the immediacy of experience. Lives examined. Olive, for example wends her way through diverse and contradictory feelings about her late husband, Henry. And then wanders in her feelings about a new love interest, Jack. She has to cope with her relationship with her son, Chris, now living in Brooklyn, (where Strout has lived, mostly, for over thirty years) and take a tough look at herself as a mother, seeing some less-than-wonderful behavior of hers repeating in her son’s life. There are some particularly moving scenes with Olive trying to make sense of her role with Chris and his family. Olive is not the only character here putting a life under the microscope. Jack Kennison, Olive’s new bf, has plenty of his past to reconsider, including his relationship with his daughter, and is in for a bit of a surprise that had been kept from him for decades.

As in the first volume, the stories alternate, pretty much, between Olive, and not Olive, although Olive does cameos in the tales that do not focus on her. A teen, working cleaning houses part time, finds herself resenting the excessive pride one woman displays about her Mayflower heritage. (Strout can track her New World ancestors back to 1603) She finds herself in a very unexpected, awkward, and remunerative situation, that requires a lowering of her standards. Or is it a seizing of power in her life? The story includes a consideration of the class bias that still persists in far too many, as Kayley Callaghan has had it drilled into her that as a working class girl of Irish heritage, she will always be invisible to people like the Doris Ringroses of the world. She finds a way to make herself seen. In one of Olive’s stories, she copes with a MAGA home health aide, and former student of Olive’s, resenting the presence of another HHA, a dark-skinned, hijab-wearing USA-born Muslim, whose mother was an immigrant from Africa.

A returnee to town on the passing of her father finds deep solace in the family attorney, and a welcoming ear to hear her tales of growing up in an abysmal home. There is such pain, warmth, emotional connection and relief in this one, that you may want to have a box of Kleenex handy.

“I think our job—maybe even our duty—is to—" Her voice became calm, adultlike. “Bear the burden of the mystery with as much grace as we can.”

One of the persistent motifs throughout the stories is secrecy. Pretty much all the characters have things they have kept to themselves. Haven’t we all? Some of the secrets are not your garden variety misdemeanors or marital wanderings, but most will be at least somewhat relatable.

Ever since I was a kid on that dirt road, I think that the biggest compelling engine in me has always been the desire to know what it feels like to be another person. I just always have been pulled through life by that deep curiosity to know. It’s a frustration for me to not even know what, like, these fingers touching the desk would feel like if it wasn’t me. As a result I have watched and watched and listened to people all the time. I’m always trying to absorb the tiniest detail that I can see or hear from them. - from the Guardian interview

Olive is in the latter stages of her life. We follow her into her 80s, as her capacities decline, and she must make unwelcome adjustments in her daily existence. There are so many facets to Olive that she glistens like a diamond. She is preternaturally crusty, and can be a chore to be around, (enough so, that Strout claims this is the reason she alternated Olive tales with stories of other Crosby residents) but she has a sort of perceptual superpower that lets her see some core emotional elements in people, and is able to jump in and act on her perceptions. This is where her kindness, her softer side, her dynamism comes to the fore. It is a thing of magnificent beauty when it does. She is even able to embrace friendship!

There is considerable lyrical beauty in Strout’s writing

You could see how at the end of each day the world seemed cracked open and the extra light made its way across the stark trees, and promised. It promised, that light, and what a thing that was. As Cindy lay on her bed she could see this even now, the gold of the last light opening the world.

The light is significant, particularly the late winter light of February, and we are offered frequent glimpses of trees reddening, and leaves falling, as what was is slowly stripped away to clear the path for what is to come.

Strout brings some characters back from volume #1 for a closer look. She even brings in a few from her 2013 novel, The Burgess Boys.

I remember walking down the street one day and all of a sudden realizing, Oh! Jim and Helen Burgess could actually be in Crosby, Maine. They could have dropped their grandson off at camp. That’s what New Yorkers do, they send their kids to camp in Maine. So I thought, how fabulous. It was so fun, particularly because it gave me the chance to explore the enormous cultural divide between New York City and Maine.

There is some political perspective in this, not a lot, and some of the political turns are achingly poignant. There are moments of humor as well. Olive’s misery while attending a baby shower is priceless, as is her eagerness to flee, regardless the cost.

We are all right for a book at different times of life. Olive, Again may be right on the money for me. While I am not the age Olive is at the end of the book, I have a sister who is, and who is facing similar situations. As a senior citizen I can certainly relate to the issues Olive faces, as can most of us of this age, I expect. Was I a good parent? Did I do right by my kids? Was I the best person I could have been? Did I do something meaningful with my life? It will make you ask some of these questions of yourself. And if you have not yet achieved silver status, there are probably people around you who have. The concerns of the elders in this book might give you a clue as to what is going on in their lives. That said, there are plenty of younger characters banging around in these pages who can offer a perspective from a different generation.

The stories in Olive, Again are strong, moving, and beautifully written. Olive is as wonderful a character as she is difficult a person. It has been a privilege renewing our acquaintance. That late season light has a way of staying right in your face and making you squint. But it also gives a magical glow and shadow to all it reaches, helping make visible what might otherwise remain unseen.


Review posted – December 6, 2019

Publication date – October 15, 2019


My review of Olive Kitteridge

=============================EXTRA STUFF

Links to the author’s personal, Twitter and FB pages

Interviews
-----New Yorker - Elizabeth Strout on Returning to Olive Kitteridge - by Devorah Treisman
-----New Yorker - Elizabeth Strout’s Long Homecoming by Ariel Levy
-----NPR - 'We've Got More To Say About You': Olive Kitteridge Is Back, And Complex As Ever - by Scott Simon
-----Irish Times - ‘She just showed up’: Elizabeth Strout on the return of Olive Kitteridge - by Catherine Conroy
----- Strand Book Store - Meg Wolitzer Talking with Elizabeth Strout - video – 50:46

Items of Interest
-----Excerpt - Motherless Child – in The New Yorker
----- PRH Author Lunch - Elizabeth Strout, author of OLIVE, AGAIN, at the PRH Author Lunch at the ALA Annual Conference 2019

Nilufer Ozmekik

Rating: really liked it
Four impeccably intercepted sad, depressing, self-discovery stories circled around a memorable literature character stars!

Our one of the grumpiest, most straightforward, sullen, cantankerous, grouchiest characters of fictional world is back! ( Frances McDormand did an amazing job to help me visualize this woman, nobody can be better Olive than her!) And its back with amazing, sad, heart-wrenching Crosby stories (some of them, she only makes small cameos, cursing at a painting as she is passing through the street and at some of the stories, she has close relationships with characters.)
What is different about Olive in this new book?
She is older now. We’re gonna witness her aging from her 70’s to 80’s.
She starts to help people ( even she gives them true answers about the cruelty of life make people feel like slapped against the face or stabbed to the heart, she is doing her best with her own way.)
She is always brutal honest, never sugarcoats and empathizes you! So people of Crosby should consider Jack Nichilson’s famous quote from “A Few Good Men” before asking her opinion. “You cannot handle the truth” so stay away from her forever!

Now she is older more sensible, self-aware, still questions herself and always tries to understand inner motives of her actions. I actually can admit that she touches people’s lives and changes them in her own branded way which is great for her friends and family because she really supports and helps them make positive changes on their lives.

I actually find her easier to connect at this book because she starts to get soften just a little bit as she gets older. She sees more about herself and the outer world objectively. But when it comes to the other people’s stories, some of the characters are easy to resonate, love and find some common things, some reflections from your own life. We are already introduced to Jack from the first book and now the first story is of the book is about him helps us to connect with the first book but as I started to be introduced with more new characters, I had really hard time to remember all those names and confused a little.

When I resumed my reading and started to clear my mind to learn more about the new characters, I found out, not all of them were truly connectable. Some of them just pissed me off or make me more depressed. When you read a book with so many characters, there are always risks not to concentrate fully on their stories and you may dislike them wholeheartedly which affects your opinion and overshadow your judgment, opinions about the entire book.
I found the stories a little bleak, gloomy and heavy. Maybe I was looking for more twisty and surprising things or more hopeful remarks help us to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I don’t say I didn’t like them but they made me give so much breaks to breathe I and out. I felt suffocated with all those depressing but realistic, heartbreaking, amazingly told stories.

Of course The Poet and Labor are my favorite stories that I truly enjoyed.

So as a summary, Strout is so talented and intelligent writer and a puzzle maker. She invented an amazing town with its people and made me believe they were real because nothing about her stories and all those characters were over exaggerated or artificial. They are from real life. They are from the heart and soul. I mostly enjoyed her gifted writing and master story-telling. It was one of the best fictions I’ve read so far.

Liz

Rating: really liked it
4.5 stars, rounded up

Elizabeth Strout is just a fabulous writer. Her ability to weave together a diverse group of characters always fascinates me. Her books are a blend between short stories and a novel. While I’m not a fan of short stories, her books always work for me, the way each chapter links to the next in its own weird way.

Olive, Again returns us to Crosby, Maine. Olive and her cronies are now in their 70s and looking back on their lives as much as forward. I felt an alliance with Olive. She’s not tactful, although she’s trying harder. And she’s not at ease. She struggles to find common ground with her own son, let alone his wife and their children.

As she moves through her old age, she finds a way to make things work. She becomes more accepting. I saw both myself and my parents reflected in Olive’s efforts to navigate the whole aging process.

Strout makes every character, not just Olive, seem fully formed and real. This is a small town and while it seems not much happens, the book speaks to life in all its variations. It was such a rich story, it totally drew me in.

My thanks to netgalley and Random House for an advance copy of this book.

Julie G

Rating: really liked it
I'm not sure if Elizabeth Strout ever has need of a bodyguard, and, if she does, I'm sure she wouldn't choose a short brunette female in her 40s, but, if she ever needs someone to protect her life, I would like to offer myself up as the best candidate. . .

. . . because I'm savage, positively savage about protecting this woman's writing career.

It's not that I demand that you, or anyone, like this novel. You have every right to like or dislike this book (and, please, please, can we always remember that on here?), but I'd love to have the opportunity to explain to readers why this woman's writing is better than 98% of what's currently out there.

This writer, this Elizabeth Strout, is able to do what almost no other writer has ever been able to do: create an iconic character you will never forget and whose existence you don't doubt for ONE DAMN MINUTE. Not even thirty seconds. Not even if you hate her.

As far as I'm concerned, Olive Kitteridge is so real, she's going to require a Certificate of Death, for tax purposes, when she dies.

And, beyond Olive (named for a drab shade of green, but don't you be fooled!), every other flipping character, every B character. . . hell, the clerk in the goddamned grocery store, is more developed than your next-door-neighbor.

And, the dialogue. . . whoa! Has she spent all six decades of her life just listening to the rise and fall of human babble?

And, the setting. . . where's the nearest airport to Crosby, Maine?

And, the plot lines. . . surely she weaves thread in her sleep?

It turns out, I wouldn't just step forward to throw a hot latte in a troll's face to protect Ms. Strout's shining visage; I'm also able to advise her that two of the stories in this collection SUCKED. Neither “Cleaning” nor “The Walk” were necessary here, and, in fact, they pull the reader out of the overall story. . . and STILL, this novel is a five star read.

I'm wrecked. I'm wrecked as a reader, wrecked as a writer.

Wrecked without Olive, again.

She had always been fierce when she felt like it.

Debbie

Rating: really liked it
In a knot, in a knot!

Scrunching, twisting, sighing instead of hopping on my pogo stick. It just didn’t do me like the last one did (sung in a bluesy voice). Oh, this book is good, very good, a 4-star read in fact, and it’s sitting on my 2019 Runners Up shelf as nice and happy as it can be. So it’s nuts to sound so disappointed. It’s just that the magic wasn’t there like it was in Olive Kitteridge, the moments when the words and the sentences dance in my head and turn me into a crazed pogo-sticker. Maybe it’s just me. My expectations were high as the sky, and I should have followed my mantra and lowered them. We all know that Olive Kitteridge is an insanely hard act to follow.

Man, I must stop this. Stop complaining and just talk about all the good. Olive, oh Olive. She’s so vivid and cool! And of course, there’s always the question: why do we love her like we do, when she really is so gruff and selfish? There’s Strout, doing her thing, making us like her! As Olive ages, she becomes way less obnoxious and cantankerous. In fact, she has MELLOWED! She even helps people, which, if she did in the first book, I don’t remember.

A few times, Olive asks people what their life is like. Although this is an excellent way to try to draw out people’s secrets and get them to reveal their souls (and a good way for the author to get character info out to the reader, lol), I’m not sure Olive would really have been that interested in other people to ask them this question. But I go back and forth on this. Olive is less self-absorbed; and she’s lonely. So isn’t that a recipe for reaching out to others?

Olive also, with age, becomes more and more self-aware. Strout does that thing of getting into Olive’s head so well (going into everyone’s head, actually), in a way that pulls out the heart. She goes into thoughts, and out comes feelings.

As always, Strout cuts to the bone. You’re going along thinking the characters are boring when slowly they start to reveal their inside story, which is usually a sad one. We just have to look close enough, and Strout makes it easy by giving us the magnifying glass.

What I love the most about the stories is how deep the conversations become, which makes the characters so real and complex. Olive wants REAL, and Olive gets it. There’s often a pattern—niceties are exchanged (so at first it looks like it’s the same old inane and mundane chit-chat that’s going nowhere), and then before you know it, the characters, often strangers or acquaintances, are talking about how they feel: disappointment with their spouses or kids; fear of aging and death; loneliness; grief; regrets; their mistakes or bad luck. Strout makes these conversations happen seamlessly, and it never seems fake.

Wouldn’t it feel richer if all our own conversations were that real and honest? Sometimes I wondered if Strout was stretching it—would people really open up that much? But she’s so skillful in her setups, I buy it. Any little doubt I have gets eaten up by a big I Don’t Care Anyway. What we end up seeing, and what’s so touching, is the rich connections people make, and the love (and pain) that exists within families. All of the thirteen stories end with poignant moments, which is always satisfying, even if there isn’t necessarily closure.

This book picks up right where Olive Kitteridge left off: the first story here is about Jack, who was in the last story in the earlier book. As with the first book, Olive stars in her own stories but she often makes cameo appearances in others. For example, in one story, her only appearance is when she passes by a woman buying a painting at a street fair. She mutters aloud something along the lines of “That’s crap!” And just those few words affect how the buyer viewed the picture once she got it home. How could it not? We get to see Olive through the eyes of people in her town as well through her own eyes.

One of the reasons that Olive is so endearing is that she hates pretension and prejudice. So it’s funny when Jack calls her a reverse snob. A comment like that (and there are several in this book) stopped me in my tracks and made me think about Olive’s outlook, and outlooks in real life. I love it that Strout stirs the pot and makes you think.

As I started each story, I was panting; hoping for more scoop about people I met in the first book. Instead, new people were constantly being introduced, which got annoying as I had to remember a bunch of new names. But if Strout had continued with some of the original characters, I would have had to reread stories in Olive Kitteridge to keep track, which would have been a royal pain—so, careful what I wish for. We did get follow-ups on some people, and I slurped up their stories like I was dying of thirst. Ha, and one nasty person from book 1 got theirs in book 2, and that’s always oh so satisfying! Way to go, Strout!

I could bring out the Complaint Board, but I just don’t want to write the words “Complaint Board” all bold-face and vivid. It’s Strout! Come on! I just can’t!

So, about that missing magic…I’m trying to figure out why I said this book doesn’t have the magic that Olive Kitteridge does, and here are the reasons I came up with:

--The language just doesn’t make the hair on my arms stand up. Making sentences sing is an art, and with Strout’s simplistic sentences, it’s even harder to do. I’ve read Strout’s My Name Is Lucy Barton, and I had the same problem—just some little thing in the language didn’t click with me. Maybe it seemed over-simplistic. With Anything Is Possible and Olive Kitteridge, the language absolutely mesmerized me. Hair on my arms standing up all over the place.

--The stories here don’t have as many surprises or twists.

--The stories are WAY more depressing.

--Too much introspection and philosophizing at the cost of plot.

I had fewer favorite stories in this collection, and even they seemed a little less powerful than the earlier Olive stories.

Hands-down favorite story:

“The Poet”—About a conversation between Olive and a former student who became a famous poet. OMG is this a great story! Ends with quite a zinger! I want to go reread that one right now!

Runners-up include:

“Cleaning”—A disturbing story about a teenager cleaning houses.

“The End of the Civil War Days”—A house with duct tape that divides territory, and a daughter with a secret life.

“Labor”—Olive’s thoughts while a mom-to-be opens presents at a baby shower are priceless. The scene made me laugh and it made me nod. Oh, poor Olive! And there’s a big, unexpected event, which changes the story entirely.

The fact that the stories are so depressing is a big deal for me. Maybe it’s worse because the stories are so realistic. And as Olive got older, I got older. The physical and psychological problems that old people have are huge and ugly, and Strout gently shoves them in our faces. I see-sawed between feeling like the last couple of stories were cathartic and feeling like I couldn’t stand another minute of reading about all the gloom ahead for me. Besides, if I want catharsis, my old-fart friends are just a phone call away. I have a major senior birthday coming up here next month. The problems of the aging Olive hit way too close to home. So this, of course, is not a criticism of the book; it’s just that the subject matter bummed me out too much. I’m thinking that if you’re under 65, you’ll have an easier time reading this book (it may not depress you); you’ll be able to fully appreciate the beauty of the stories, the art of this amazing writer, without thinking, “uh oh, I could be next.”

There’s talk about the fear of death. Again, on one hand I love that Strout covers such a real and important topic (one that no one wants to talk about), but on the other hand, reading about it makes me anxious as hell. It’s times like this that I say, bring on the funny, bring on fantasy lives! I read for escape, to help me avoid thinking about scary things that I have no power to change. This book didn’t take me far enough away from reality.

Despite my complaints, I recommend this book. Strout is a master storyteller. Her stories are intense, her characters are vivid and complex. I highlighted a gazillion sentences (and paragraphs), which I only do when I’m super engaged and impressed. There’s so much wisdom in this book!

If you loved Olive Kitteridge, you’ll love this book. If you didn't read Olive Kitteridge yet, you don’t have to read it first, but I think it makes the experience of reading this one a little richer.

I hope hope hope that they do another TV series based on Olive’s life. But they’d absolutely have to get Frances McDormand to play Olive again—I think hair and makeup artists could make her age perfectly.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy.

Jaline

Rating: really liked it
Olive Kitteridge. One-time Math teacher. Wife. Mother. Grand-mother. We have met her before during various stages of her life, and in this novel, we are witness to her outspokenness and the force of her personality in the late autumn years of her life and on into the winter years.

The people of Crosby, Maine figure largely in this novel just as they did in the first. Many of these people we have also met before, and some are ones that come into Olive’s orbit through changes in their own circumstances. Regardless of how they came to be, they each contribute to the layers of humanity we are in close contact with throughout this novel.

Elizabeth Strout has surpassed the high calibre of her writing, taking us on an adventure of humanity where we experience a wide range of emotions, bolstered by the thoughts and interactions of the characters. Written with immense compassion coupled with Olive’s singular tart personality, this story elicits both recognition and empathy.

This novel is like a microcosm of the larger macrocosm we currently live in. I found myself completely ensorcelled moving between perspectives lived out by the characters in the modern world they found themselves in. The many changes over the decades of their lives and how they experience these changes are always present in the periphery.

The world within and the world without. Elizabeth Strout’s writing in this novel takes us deftly through both and blurs the boundaries between them. It was an unexpected surprise how accurately and beautifully the characters and their environs are presented – and how deeply I felt their reality.

For fans of Olive Kitteridge, this is a must-read. And for those who have yet to meet Olive Kitteridge, I implore you to do so. There are depths to Olive that encourage us to explore our own depths, and that is always a good thing.


Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of this novel, and to the author, Elizabeth Strout, for sharing Olive Kitteridge with us. Its publication date is October 15, 2019.

Cheri

Rating: really liked it

Olive has not changed much since I last spent time in her company, she is still the same opinionated, domineering, judgmental, interfering and needy woman, but time has passed. Time without her husband, Henry, whose quiet, gentle ways and willingness to see the good in people no longer softened the bitterness in their home since his passing, but it is also only in his death that she seems to begin to recognize the value of his ways in her life.

As in Olive Kitteridge, the characters that populate these intermingled stories don’t lead exciting lives; there isn’t much in Crosby, Maine that has changed. There are few opportunities for significant change, since the town seems to hang onto the ways of doing things the way they’ve always been done, while at the same time growing somewhat in social awareness.

Olive is, of course, still viewed by the town as the disagreeably irritable woman that has been crabby so long that she is referred to by such descriptions as “That pickle person. You know ---- what’s like a pickle?” followed by another saying ”That’s just who she is.”

These stories, which are all linked to Olive in one way or another, through past association as students or teachers she worked with before her retirement, longtime neighbors, they share these inner thoughts of Olive, and sometimes with Olive about life in Crosby, and their life struggles, and their lives since leaving Crosby. Still, this is Olive’s story.

With the passage of more years behind than before her, looking back on her life over the years, I loved the subtle growth in Olive, how she begins to see her failures as well as her growth, declaring herself perhaps “oh, just a tiny – tiny – bit better as a person” and finds herself wishing that Henry was around to see her light shine through.



Published: 15 Oct 2019

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Random House Publishing Group – Random House

Diane S ☔

Rating: really liked it
An older and wiser, Olive?. Yes, somewhat but she is still outspoken, firm in her likes and dislikes, but more tactful and empathetic. Looking back she admits to mistakes she has made. Linked episodes, that is the description i would use describing this book. The people of Crosby, Maine, like all towns, are going through their individual crises and Olive flute in and out through their lives, sometimes with just a glancing blow. Some episodes are all Olive, catching us up on her life since her last staring role, in the last book.

Strout, takes the many incidents and foibles, the ordinary things that make up a day,and makes them interesting. As a reader one can relate to some of these occurrences, realizing these are the things that make up our lives. Childbearing, marriage, loneliness, friendship, health issues and aging. Yes, it's all here and plenty more. Life, in all its Glory and ugliness is what is on these pages, and Strout does them justice.

ARC from Random House.

Karen

Rating: really liked it
Olive... I just LOVE her!! She is the same Olive, frank..poking around in the lives of her fellow townsfolk of Crosby, Maine.
There was a lot of humor in her interactions (seriously funny, laugh out loud funny) but there was a lot of sadness in these stories too, as it deals with aging and loneliness.
You should definitely read this! Loved it!

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House for this ARC!

Anne Bogel

Rating: really liked it
Absolutely fantastic, even better than the original Olive. Strout's talent lies in imbuing everyday moments with deep significance, and she shines in this collection.

I recommend reading these in order. I read Olive Kitteredge and Olive, Again nearly back-to-back, which made for a wonderful reading experience.