Olive Kitteridge is the common denominator in Elizabeth’s Stroud’s collection of 13 short stories. Sometimes Olive is the lead character, other times she’s simply a supporting actress waiting in the wings in the salty seaside village of Crosby, Maine.
Stroud goes against convention and presents us with a lead character that is, by all accounts, unlikable. Descriptors would include abrasive, insensitive, large in physique and presence, outspoken, flawed yet fascinating. Despite the hard shell, each of the stories unpeels another layer of Olive. The reader witnesses Olive’s growing understanding of herself, her family and the small-town life around her.
The novel Olive Kitteridge won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2009 and was listed as “Best Book of the Year” by numerous publishers including The Washington Post, The Plain Dealer, and Library Journal. The acclaim, in my opinion, is deserved. In these powerful stories we find ordinary people trying to grapple with what life has dealt them; anorexia, cheating spouses, suicide, and even less serious daily irritations or delights. Through love and acceptance they find relief.
Reading these stories is like wearing an invisible shroud and slipping into the homes of our neighbors, i.e. people we claim to know but really don’t. And how about those neighbors that you can’t tolerate? Perhaps they are like Olive, unlikable, at least until you slip into their lives and view the world through the lens of their experiences. Maybe they too become more endearing…just as Olive does in the last story.
Kent State University’s MUSE Group will discuss this novel on March 1, at 6:30 in the Main Classroom Building, 400 Fourth Street, East Liverpool. MUSE is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served. Call 330-382-7421 for additional information
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