Olive, Again
A Novel
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- ¥1,200
発行者による作品情報
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, Again poignantly reminds us that empathy, a requirement for love, helps make life ‘not unhappy.’”—NPR
ONE OF PEOPLE’S TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
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.”
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: 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
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.
