Olive Kitteridge: Fiction by Elizabeth Strout Paperback Book

Details

Rent Olive Kitteridge: Fiction

Author: Elizabeth Strout

Format: Quality Paperback, Paperback, Abridged-CD

Publisher: Random House Trade

Published: Oct 2008

Genre: Fiction - General

Retail Price: $18.00

Pages: 288

Synopsis

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.


Praise for Olive Kitteridge:

"Perceptive, deeply empathetic . . . Olive is the axis around which these thirteen complex, relentlessly human narratives spin themselves into Elizabeth Strout's unforgettable novel in stories."
–O: The Oprah Magazine

"Fiction lovers, remember this name: Olive Kitteridge. . . . You'll never forget her. . . . [Elizabeth Strout] constructs her stories with rich irony and moments of genuine surprise and intense emotion. . . . Glorious, powerful stuff."
–USA Today

"Funny, wicked and remorseful, Mrs. Kitteridge is a compelling life force, a red-blooded original. When she's not onstage, we look forward to her return. The book is a page-turner because of her."
–San Francisco Chronicle

"Olive Kitteridge still lingers in memory like a treasured photograph."
–Seattle Post-Intelligencer

"Rarely does a story collection pack such a gutsy emotional punch."
–Entertainment Weekly

"Strout animates the ordinary with astonishing force. . . . [She] makes us experience not only the terrors of change but also the terrifying hope that change can bring: she plunges us into these churning waters and we come up gasping for air."
–The New Yorker

View descriptions at Amazon.com

Recommended

The Heart Is a Lonely...
by Carson McCullers

With the publication of her first novel, THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER, Carson McCullers, all of twenty-three, became a literary sensation. With its...

Loving Frank
by Nancy Horan

I have been standing on the side of life, watching it float by. I want to swim in the river. I want to feel the current.So writes Mamah Borthwick...

The Mermaid Chair
by Sue Monk Kidd

Sue Monk Kidd's novel revolves around a chair known as the 'mermaid chair,' which is part of a shrine in a South Carolina monastery dedicated to a...

Crow Lake (Today Show...
by Mary Lawson

Canadian writer Mary Lawson's debut novel is a beautifully crafted and shimmering tale of love, death, and redemption. The story, narrated by ...

The Art of Racing in the...
by Garth Stein

A heart-wrenching but deeply funny and ultimately uplifting story of family, love, loyalty, and hope—a captivating look at the wonders and...

American Wife
by Curtis Sittenfeld

A kind, bookish only child born in the 1940s, Alice Lindgren has no idea that she will one day end up in the White House, married to the president. In...

The Tenth Circle
by Jodi Picoult

Jodi Picoult's twelfth novel is permeated with themes from Dante's INFERNO. Daniel Stone, a successful graphic novelist, is working on a new book...

The Curious Incident of...
by Mark Haddon

Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals...

The Reader
by Bernhard Schlink

A teenage boy named Michael is befriended by Hanna, a mysterious older married woman. Years later as a law student, he attends a criminal trial in...

Reviews

BookLender review by Katrina on 2009-11-08 21:32:57

I found the book interestingly written, with the eponymous character not always being the central character, and rarely sympathetic. This book provoked thought, amused me, made me a bit sad at times. It captured much of what I recall about living in Maine.