Olive, Again
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Olive Kitteridge
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3.8 • 278 Ratings
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning, Number One New York Times bestselling author of Olive Kitteridge and My Name is Lucy Barton
'A terrific writer' Zadie Smith
'A superbly gifted storyteller and a craftswoman in a league of her own' Hilary Mantel
'A novel to treasure' Sunday Times
Olive, Again follows the blunt, contradictory yet deeply loveable Olive Kitteridge as she grows older, navigating the second half of her life as she comes to terms with the changes - sometimes welcome, sometimes not - in her own existence and in those around her.
Olive adjusts to her new life with her second husband, challenges her estranged son and his family to accept him, experiences loss and loneliness, witnesses the triumphs and heartbreaks of her friends and neighbours in the small coastal town of Crosby, Maine - and, finally, opens herself to new lessons about life.
'A powerful storyteller immersed in the nuances of human relationships' Observer
'She gets better with each book' Maggie O'Farrell
'Her writing is exquisite; her vision is boundless. What a sublime book.' Rachel Joyce
'Glorious' The Times
'A perfect novel' Financial Times
Elizabeth Strout's new novel Tell Me Everything is available out now!
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Oprah calls her new book club pick “one of those books that you start and don’t want to put down.” And whether or not you already know Olive Kitteridge—the prickly heroine Elizabeth Strout first introduced to the world in 2008—we’re certain that Olive, Again will make you fall in love with her little slice of the world. The book draws us into Olive’s richly layered inner life and explores the changing landscape—human and otherwise—of her small Maine town. Strout’s affection for Olive is clear as day, even when she does and says things that are small and mean. She portrays her entire cast of characters with a warm lack of sentimentality these gruff East Coasters would undoubtedly appreciate, delivering an unflinching look at aging, loneliness, and the chasms that can open up within families. This novel is a marvel—in no small part because it reminds us to love hard and well while we can.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
As direct, funny, sad, and human as its heroine, Strout's welcome follow-up to Olive Kitteridge portrays the cantankerous retired math teacher in old age. The novel, set in small-town coastal Crosby, Maine, unfolds like its predecessor through 13 linked stories. "Arrested" begins just after the first novel ends, with 74-year-old widower Jack Kennison wooing 73-year-old Olive. "Motherless Child" follows the family visit when Olive tells her son she plans to marry Jack. In "Labor," Olive awkwardly admires gifts at a baby shower, then efficiently delivers another guest's baby. Olive also offers characteristic brusque empathy to a grateful cancer patient in "Light," and, in "Heart," to her own two home nurses one a Trump supporter, one the daughter of a Somali refugee. "Helped" brings pathos to the narrative, "The End of the Civil War Days" humor, "The Poet" self-recognition. Jim Burgess of Strout's The Burgess Boys comes to Crosby to visit brother Bob ("Exiles"). Olive, in her 80s, living in assisted care, develops a touching friendship with fellow resident Isabelle from Amy and Isabelle ("Friend"). Strout's stories form a cohesive novel, both sequel and culmination, that captures, with humor, compassion, and embarrassing detail, aging, loss, loneliness, and love. Strout again demonstrates her gift for zeroing in on ordinary moments in the lives of ordinary people to highlight their extraordinary resilience.
Customer Reviews
Maine event
Author
American. Favourite of the critics even before Olive Kitteridge (2008) won the Pulizter Prize. Her last novel, My Name is Lucy Barton (2016) was a widely praised best seller. Her short fiction has been published in a number of magazines, including The New Yorker. She teaches at the Master of Fine Arts program at Queens University of Charlotte NC. Olive Kitteridge was made into an HBO TV series in 2014 starring Frances McDormand.
Plot
Like the original, there’s not a plot as such. Instead, the book comprises a series of stories set in the small seaside community of Crosby, Maine, interlinked (sometimes quite loosely) by Olive Kitteridge, an unattractive and at times overbearing maths teacher, who is also an abrasive commentator on local behaviour and mores. In the original, Olive featured prominently in the stories that involved her husband Henry, a pharmacist, and their children. In the sequel, Henry is dead, and Olive finds companionship, and eventually marries, a widowed former Harvard history lecturer who retired to the area. The events described are largely quotidian.
Characters
Olive is Olive, never afraid to call a spade a spade, but has mellowed a little second time at bat. The supporting cast is interesting and keenly drawn. Crosby seems to be a fairly depressing place that is home to a lot of depressed white people.
Prose
Crisp, clear prose. The chapter changes would likely come off as abrupt in the hands of a lesser writer, but Ms Strout is a past master (or mistress, or something with a neutral pronoun) of this sort of thing.
Bottom line
I read Olive Kitteridge ten years ago and didn’t like it much, although I admired Ms Strout, and still do, for blazing the trail for a different type of novel structure that has been copied, but not bettered, by a number of writers since. I gave it another go before I tangled with Olive, Again, and had similar misgivings. Whether because Olive has toned down a little in her late seventies, or because Ms Strout is a more seasoned writer, I liked this book better than the original, something I can’t recall having done before.
Olive Again
Funny and real. Loved it.