olive again by Elizabeth Strout
Of life and its manyfold tribulations
28 July 2021
Olive gets older, and she becomes even more compelling than in the first instalment, Olive Kitteridge. I will not spoil the reading for you, but there are loads to enjoy in her character "development" - I laughed out loud in one or two occasions, and a smile rarely left my face when she appeared... even if there is poignancy and heartache in abundance. The last chapter, Friend, is wonderful, and Olive´s final typed statement (she takes up writing!)... I subscribe.
I have enjoyed this small, very American, very Maine, yet universal town and its inhabitants tremendously. The writing is precise, with a tremendous vividness; the organisation of the stories made me keep reading with pleasure; there is discovery, reappraisal, surprise: loads of vignettes with that total whiff of actuality that makes me read with attention and extrapolate appropriately. The titles of the chapter-stories give little away; I particularly loved Light, and the already mentioned Friend, but all of them offer something special (The End of the Civil War Days is a tour de force!). The frail, the angry, the clueless... a real panoply of characters defined with just a few strokes of the right gesture, apposite dialogue, secret thought. You could say that this is a novel of a living town with Olive as its quirky conductor.
An unpretentious to my mind yet artful and wise writer who does not disappoint. I am totally looking forward to her new novel, Oh William!