RollnSmoke Reviews: OLIVE KITTERIDGE

OLIVE KITTERIDGE by Elizabeth Strout (Vintage, 2008)

Worthy Winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize in literature, this episodic third novel features the flawed, brusque and evolving Olive Kitteridge as revealed via various satellite characters in 13 skillfully linked short stories that take place over the years in a small coastal town in Maine. Strout’s lyrical diction is indeed “distinguished” in its rare ability to capture perceptive detail in ordinary “American Life” that achieves a marvelous and riveting picture of humanity – in all its various foibles and vulnerabilities – through childhood memories, thoughts of suicide, heartbreaks, divorce, depression, mental illness, adultery, life and death. And Olive Kitteridge herself, the central feast at the table of this rich story, is subtly rendered as moody and unapologetic, but also as enduring, hopeful and capable of enormous tenderness. (9.5/10).