Olive, Again: A Novel (Olive, 2)

The stories are great and the the last chapter in particular is unforgettable, if you have read the other novels. The way characters from one series flit seemlessly into other books is mesmerising and on occasion even seemed to take my breath away. I have read perhaps only one series like this before. I remember more than 40 years ago reading and being stunned by Updike's Rabbit novels. I think this is the first time I have felt the same awe at the psychological depth of the characters over a sustained period.I am completely in love with Olive and Lucy and Isabelle and Amy and the Burgess brothers and all the other folk who populate these novels and stories and thank Elizabeth very much for introducing them to me.One of the highlights of my long long reading lifetime.

I read this book because, obviously, I had loved Olive in the prior book. Olive is a difficult, forthright and opionated woman who speaks her mind and forms uninformed opinions about everyone she meets. She is most definitely not loveable, and yet we had come to love her. Olive is barely in this book. And the final note of hope and peace that you find at the end of the first book is immediately withdrawn from this one. It only is found again at very nearly the end. Especially in the beginning of this novel there is a lot of profanity that the characters are saying--gratuious, unnecessary profanity. And Olive is not charming or endearing in any way. And virtually all of the characters that tell their stories have the saddest, most hopeless stories you can have. Sometimes at the very end of their recitation there is a small upbeat in positivity, but that is all you are given after having endured the prior hopeless anecdote. And I wsan't sure what the author was hoping I would take away from that. That life just plain sucks? You can try your best and are abused or neglected and there is no other option than that? Honestly, if this is all life can be or is to be expected then no wonder Olive is so mean. And the first half of the book most of the descriptions that Olive internally makes about anybody she meets usually regards the size of their ass or their stomach flopping onto the table. Real body shaming nonsense that is pretty atrocious. I was glad I did get to the end because Olive does conclude that she makes assumptions against people based on something as nonsensical as that fact they are from New York, for example. (and that is wrong in her mind, obviously). Finally, and I mean finally, Olive finds some peace and friends in an assisted living home and concludes (and I highlighted this) "I do not have a clue who I have been. Truthfully, I do not understand a thing."I think the author wanted to finish up the charming book about Olive with a story about the end of life of someone like Olive. And if you are game for that, then read this book. If I had read that in the reviews, I don't know if I would have read the book. Death and the end of a life is rarely really dealt with in any form in our country. And it is certainly a topic everyone has to face. This books main topic is that. And even more than that. This book deals with death from the point of view of a person who almost certainly lives at odds with the world and alienates most people she meets--even though her honesty breaks through defenses of people in odds comforting ways at times. It deals with Olive's loneliness and her relationship with her son which had been a disappointment much of her life. I was glad that relationship was healed somewhat by the end of the book. I think everybody ought to read this book so that our end of life is more connected in peace before we reach our ends. I don't know if this was meant to be a cautionary tale, but it has to be. Because virtually every periphery character is a cautionary tale of their own in this story.

Elisabeth has tackled aging with wide open eyes, and a tenderness that can be almost shocking. And her ability to write is pure pleasure to read.

Perfect gift for my mom that I could find nowhere else!

I invited Olive Kitteridge into my life again initially because, well, hell's bells, let's face it, every sports fan occasionally enjoys a greasy stadium hot dog topped with a bitter distrusting personality and a teaspoon full of vinegar-based unconsciousness. I reminisced at the bookstore counter, "She was a hoot. Let me see what she's been up to since the death of her dear husband, Henry." And so after non-stop reading, I burped, popped Tums and rubbed my guts, because Olive's still that agita producing, burrowing under your skin kind of antagonist that I remembered, with one notable exception: She. Is. Evolving.Still saying the kinds of things that most people only think, Olive is predictable and snarky but now, motivated by loneliness, she puts impatience and sarcasm on simmer to make room for Jack, the sports car-driving-widower forced into retirement from his sleepy career at Harvard. This grieving elitist conservative's emery board honesty--born from disastrous relational mistakes--wears away at Olive's rough edges, just enough.A chagrined and aging Olive slowly realizes that heaping large portions of sobering and heartless comments on others has kept her in an untenable self-imposed isolation. So, in fits and starts she begins engaging in an "Olive-styled" social etiquette, purposefully and clumsily sprinkling affirmations on grandchildren and select needy members of the community.If you're wondering if Olive, Again is a sappy disappointment, don't worry! Olive's jagged edges never truly disappear. You'll be gratified and occasionally stunned by how deep her candor can pierce through even the bravest heart. And conversely you may be surprised at how often Strout reveals Olive's rancor simply through thoughts that never pass her bitter lips.The power of this story is diluted by Strout's choices...missed opportunities to show the sparks that would've inevitably lit up Olive and Jack's relationship. In the chapter ironically titled "Light," instead of banging out her usual sparkling dialogue between Olive and Jack, Strout has Olive telling a peripheral character the details of a pivotal fight she has had with him.And the biggest disappointment with "Olive, Again" is the handful of chapters where Olive makes cameo appearances. Is this a contrived way for Strout to showcase her exceptional short story writing skills? Even though the characters in these chapters are in most cases engaging, Strout rarely circles back to connect them to the main story which is why I give "Olive, Again" a 3.5 out of 5 stars.I wanted this story to be all about the Olive Kitteridge I've been waiting to visit with, again. And even though the book has missed that mark, I loved that Strout once again decided to masterfully weave this colorful character from the inside out on the page.Don't hesitate! Jump into the cold coastal Maine waters to swim and age alongside this curmudgeon who in her second half of life, becomes a student of "loneliness abatement." Swirl with dread and delight through swift currents and rising tides.

I read Olive Kitteridge many years ago and enjoyed it very much. I was really curious about the TV adaptation and loved that too so had high expectations of this book.This was first published in 2019, the book has 289 pages, split into 13 named chapters.Olive becomes familiar again as soon as she comes into this book. It's easy to see something of yourself in Olive, struggling to start a new relationship and being almost angry about the banal practice of passing around presents at a baby shower (she can't resist going, even though she is full of scorn). Then it is the engagement with and recognition of all the other characters that keep any reader glued to this novel.As with most Elizabeth Strout books, this novel takes the format of short stories, always focused on one main character (sometimes, but not always, Olive herself), even when Olive is not the main driver she always appears somewhere. Each story gradually progresses Olive's life in a chronological manner.Time moves on very gradually with occasional references to the seasons, the weather and the progression of nature. Olive moves with the changes in her world, full of contradictions, often curmudgeonly yet always sensitive to those around her and prepared to help out when needed.ES trusts the reader to work out what is happening to the people in this town without it always needing to be laid out. This is a respectful attitude and reading between the lines makes this a rewarding book to read.I found this book made me reflective. It considers many different types of people and looks at their relationships, with partners, as parents/children but also as friends and even just acquaintances. You cannot fail to look at your own life and draw some parallels.Olive's environment and the people in it is reveals piece by piece almost like a jigsaw. A better description of this book might be that it is a precious jewel where we see each facet in detail before being able to appreciate the complete gem stone.Through Olive and those around her the author explores the final stages of the ageing process. People die because it is natural and it often happens without drama.

We all know an Olive. We may all be an Olive in some ways. This series took me through the Canadian winter afternoons leaving my pensive and calmed while heightening my sensitivity to the human condition. All of Elizabeth Strout's books are a must read.

Olive Kitteridge, the feisty, overbearing and callous titular character of Strout’s Pulitzer-winning novel, and arguably Strout’s most endearing creation, is back. In this sequel of sorts, the same Olive who suffers no fools shows she can be surprisingly vulnerable and kind when the occasion calls for it.Between that first novel and “Olive Again”, this enigmatic and much beloved character, had appeared in the other novels, all set near or in a small town in Maine. Characters from these novels appear and pick up from where they left off. For example, the “Burgess Boys” and their wives and sister feature in a chapter that provides a kind of epilogue to that novel. In Strout’s fictional universe, the interconnections between the characters are inextricably linked, mirroring how it is with people in our life or those who lurk in the periphery of our social circles.Olive, just as she does in the previous novel, appears as a main character, and yet she also features as a minor character or even just a passing mention in this series of short stories that could read as standalone episodes in themselves. When put together, these stories offer a holistic picture that is enriched by the way they inform one another. The Olive in this volume is in her 70s and 80s and we see her, as well as the other characters, confronting mortality and the reality of ageing and the conditions of loneliness and the illnesses that accompany it. Imagine the feisty Olive suffering from incontinence and having to wear adult nappies - that in itself is quite a struggle for someone as stubbornly independent as she is. In some of these stories, we see her uneasy relationship with her son, Christopher and his wife, and the way she relates to her grandchildren. We cheer for Olive as she finds a second chance at love after her bereavement, and we also see how she rises to the occasion when she meets an ex-student who is stricken with cancer, and offers an unsolicited act of kindness.At other times, she brushes over others and bulldozes her way in a town where everybody knows her and attracts her fair share of detractors and those who love her, even though she can be fiercely loyal or brutally dismissive, with her signature wave of her hand over her head and her infamous exclamation, “oh, hell’s bells to all of you”. Strout has created a larger-than-life character in Olive Kitteridge, and in this follow-up, she remains the enigmatic character (even to herself) that we root for and cheer on even as she faces her share of life’s brickbats and deals with them with as much (flagging) courage and grace as she could muster. Because sometimes, that may just be enough.

I absolutely loved the first book - Olive Kitteridge. It was a refreshing read about an elderly lady who was brutally honest in all she said and did. Both books are cleverly written - with each chapter including the character Olive but being a self contained story, relating to various inhabitants of the small town Maine in the USA where she lived / her small family. The second book was a big disappointment - she was very old by this stage and on to her second husband. The format was the same - each chapter relating to town inhabitants / her relations but it lacked the interesting story lines of the first (which touched on her husband's infatuation with a work colleague and indeed her own private longings). The best chapters in the second book - as with her last - related to her only son with whom she had a very believable , tense relationship . He found her very difficult to deal with and as the reader you sympathised with him but wished he would be kinder/more understanding. In the 2nd book he does progress a bit and show appreciation when he realises she won't live for ever. Overall though, I found the stories in each chapter lacked the narrative drive of the first book and its humour.

The name of the fictional town of Crosby is a tribute to the author’s room mate in college, Ellen Crosby. The first “Olive” novel was simply titled “Olive Kitteridge” and is described as a ‘novel in stories‘. Olive, Again is in similar format. Olive, the eponymous lady of the title, is the leitmotif throughout the book, some chapters are dedicated to her post retirement life, sharing snippets and insights as she deals with the ageing process. Other stories are about the people in the small town and Olive will make a cameo appearance. She has some connection to all the characters featured and it is a little like picking up a magnifying glass, and with the aid of the deft hand of the author, the inner workings of the characters and lives are prised open like a nut for the reader to appreciate.This is not a linear story per se, it is just beautiful writing and storytelling. Olive almost seems to be on the autism spectrum because at times her interactions can be quite curt, she says what she thinks without really giving thought to how her words are received. She really struggles to filter her thoughts before she voices her opinion. Yet, she can also be reflective and can try so hard. She tries to re-connect with her son, who comes to stay with her for a few days, yet she doesn’t know really how to dive in and mend the fractured relationship. When she discovers, left behind, a small garment she had knitted for one her grandchildren she feels ‘terror’. She corrects how others speak. She is just who she is, plucky and direct and that rare fictional character, yes, an older woman! Love her or hate her, she is a memorable character. There is quiet humour, too and it is at times quite moving.What really makes this novel work is the beautiful and stylish writing. Emotions are created with select, pertinent words brought together in a creative and fluid way. The author’s prose is just wonderful.