Hardcover, 288 pages
English language
Published March 25, 2008 by Random House.
At times stern, at other times patient, at times perceptive, at other times in sad denial, Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher, deplores the changes in her little town of Crosby, Maine, and in the world at large, but she doesn’t always recognize the changes in those around her: a lounge musician haunted by a past romance; a former student who has lost the will to live; Olive’s own adult child, who feels tyrannized by her irrational sensitivities; and her husband, Henry, who finds his loyalty to his marriage both a blessing and a curse.
As the townspeople grapple with their problems, mild and dire, Olive is brought to a deeper understanding of herself and her life–sometimes painfully, but always with ruthless honesty. Olive Kitteridge offers profound insights into the human condition–its conflicts, its tragedies and joys, and the endurance it requires.
I started trying to read this novel in December (23) but it defeats me. Perhaps it is declining RAM in my brain, but it seems to me that pointillism was fine for Seurat but as a writing technique it requires keeping too many balls in the air. I fell off the horse when Strout invented a new tree species.
