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|  | Author: Elizabeth Strout
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
List Price: $14.00
Buy New: $7.06
as of 11/23/2009 19:00 CST details
You Save: $6.94 (50%)
New (102) Used (44) Collectible (1) from $6.71
Seller: treebeardbooks
Rating:  280 reviews
Sales Rank: 66
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Edition: Reprint
Pages: 304
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5 x 0.8
ISBN: 0812971833
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780812971835
ASIN: 0812971833
Publication Date: September 30, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New, Fast and Professional Shipping (no shipping to: APO, AK, HI, PR as standard mail to these locations takes 4+ weeks).
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 266-270 of 280
Olive Kitteridge May 11, 2008
Readingrat
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
Olive Kitteridge is subtitled a "novel in stories". Reading this book is like looking through a family photo album. Each short story is a snapshot portraying life in small town Maine. Strout expertly constructs each snapshot for us with her beautiful prose, adding layer upon layer, and often adding a slight twist at the end of the story which completely changes the picture we thought we were seeing into something we weren't quite expecting at all.
Olive is of course our title character but she isn't always the main character in each short story. In those stories where she is our main character, we get to spend a little time in the head of a woman who is struggling mightily to make sense of her life as she grows older and feels the world moving on without her. In some of the other stories Olive plays a secondary character, in others she's merely an extra in the scene, and in still others she's nothing more than a memory, but she does manage to show up, in some way, in each one. These other stories serve not only to introduce us to some of the other people in the town but also to show us the other sides of Olive's character, thereby letting the reader see that the way we see ourselves is not always the same way that others see us.
Quite an enjoyable read May 9, 2008
Jake Levitatieau (Washington State)
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
I usually read thriller/mystery books but gave Olive a try and wasn't disappointed. It was a throughly enjoyable read looking deep into the psyche of the characters. Even though this is a compilation of short stories, it didn't detract and read like a single novel from beginning to end. A lot of messages in the stories, some happy some sad all pretty humorous.
 Olive Oh Olive! May 8, 2008
Christine D. Sabados (chicago il usa)
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
What a delightful insight into our journey here on earth. The author develops the title character with such care and sensitivity that we see ourselves before we realize that Olive is "everywoman". Simply put, this book touched my heart.
Luminous Insights Into Private Lives May 4, 2008
Jill I. Shtulman (Chicago, IL USA)
13 out of 15 found this review helpful
What an exceptional novel! Elizabeth Strout binds together thirteen short stories with one character, Olive Kitteridge, who straddles each of them. And in the end, she learns (I paraphrase), "Lumpy, aged and wrinkled bodies were as needy as young, firm ones; love is not to be tossed away carelessly on a platter with others that got passed around again."
Olive is a large (and sometimes, larger-than-life) woman who lives in Crosby, Maine, with her amiable husband Henry and her conflicted son, Chris. Through these stories, we will see these three characters, and others who are peripheral to their lives, change and evolve with many unexpected surprises.
We meet many characters who live inside the homes we pass every day: a former student who contemplates suicide, an anorexic young woman who is literally starving while many in the town are figuratively starving, an aging married woman who learns that small moments are not always gifts, a spurned fiancee who chooses love on any terms. As these Crosby residents grapple with problems large and small, and choose or reject love, Olive slowly gains insights into the human condition.
I loved this book. I loved its beautiful writing, solid core, hidden truths, and ruthless honesty. I will miss Olive Kitteridge, and her small human dramas. I cannot imagine anyone reading this book and not agreeing with the book's conclusion: "It baffled her, the world. She did not want to leave it yet."
Short Stories for Mature Readers May 4, 2008
Patricia A. Fair (Nashville, TN USA)
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
These "linked" yet stand alone short stories have all of the elements of aging set in stories with insight and interesting twists. The book weaves the character of Charlotte Kitteridge into each story at some point, even if just in passing, but it feels like real life that you are looking in on for that reason. The last story rounds out the collection with hope, change and something of a new beginning in the most real way possible. Having read this book I will look for others by Elizabeth Strout. She deeply understands life and is able to put it into words that are visceral and intelligent.
Showing reviews 266-270 of 280
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