Elizabeth Strout: Olive Kitteridge

For a long time graduate school got the best of me and I actually considered deleting this blog altogether. Now, I'm back, at least temporarily, with a review of a wonderful collection of short stories I recently read. I had previously read Abide with me, by Elizabeth Strout, and while I enjoyed it I wasn't pulled into it as much as with this collection. I recently picked up this Pulitzer Prize winning collection, after hearing the author present her latest work The Burgess Boys, which I haven't read yet, since my budget doesn't allow for the purchase of hardcover books at this time. If her newest novel manages to even come close to Olive Kitteridge I will be happy to have read it, because I absolutely loved the short stories. The structure of the collection is what critics usually call a composite novel, in which all the stories are linked together by a common setting and characters that return in the various stories. A lot like in Sherwood Anderson's Whinesburg, Ohio, the action here takes place in a small town in Maine, where everyone - mostly old people - knows each other and all the characters' stories are linked to each other in some way. Olive Kitteridge herself is a crabby old math-teacher who observes her neighbors with contempt more often than understanding, but you learn to love her as the book goes on. The structure of the composite novel allows you to see the different characters from many points of view and really get to know them and if not understand at least feel for them. It also sheds light on what the characters understand of themselves and of each other. Olive herself is the main link between the stories, although she appears only fleetingly in a few of them. I guess if I had to find a concise way to describe the main theme of this book I would define it as compassion and understanding. Many characters - and the protagonist most of all - are not immediately lovable, heroic or endearing. However, by understanding more about their motives, deep desires and hidden weaknesses we come to feel true empathy toward them. In a way, it is the same empathy that Olive herself feels toward many of the people she meets, although her absolute lack of sentimentality make her appear harsh and unfeeling. Although she is absolutely incapable of expressing her affections, there is an honesty about Olive that does give her an aura of heroism at the end, just as her frustration for her failed relationship with her son shows her in all her weakness. At the end of the day she seems to know the fundamental truth regarding herself and all the other villagers: a desperate need to be loved.
It is not an especially light or happy read, but it is so well written that it is really easy to get absorbed in. I don't agree with some reviewers and bloggers who have called it depressing - although it is true that some of the themes are pretty dark (most characters are either sick, dying or miserable). What truly made it a great book, for me, is Elizabeth Strout's writing style, her control, her use of point of view, the nuances of her language. Maybe it is a sign that I'm getting older, but her wit and humor made me laugh out loud a couple of times, while my heart was breaking at the same time.