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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
Wonderful, beautifully written and very moving. The sort of book where you want to savour every sentence.
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
medium-paced
challenging
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Wow. Don’t know how this won a Pulitzer honestly. Yeah I get the message at the end, but all the stories were dark and not in a particularly captivating way. Really just reads like a collection of short stories that were poorly tied together.
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
lighthearted
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Olive is not always present in this novel, a fact which is disconcerting in a novel bearing her name. We start with a focus on her husband and in the next chapter Olive plays a peripheral role. But gradually we get to know her and understand her role in the community. The novel is really about her getting to know herself. She cannot understand her son’s choice of wife or why he moves with her, away from the house that Olive and Henry, her husband, had built for him all the way to California. It is even more inexplicable to her that he stays in California after the divorce and then moves to New York. When he invites her to stay with him and his new wife and her children from former relationships, she realizes she is being asked to help out with the kids, but she is still happy that he finally wants to see her. Strout’s art is to make us understand more about the intricacies of her relationship with her son Christopher than she does herself. Not surprisingly, the visit comes to an abrupt end with an outraged Olive being sent to the airport in a hired car. There is a funny but uncomfortable scene at the airport where Olive rebels at the security control:
She pictured standing before him, her shredded panty hose exposed like some crazy lady. “I will not take off my shoes,” she heard herself say. She said, “I don’t give a damn if the plane blows up, do you understand? I don’t give one good goddamn if any of you are blown sky high.” She saw the security man give the slightest gesture of his hand, and two people were beside her. They were men, and in half a second a woman was there, too. Security officials in their white shirts and special stripes above the pockets.
In voices of great gentleness they said, “Come this way, ma’am.”
She nodded, blinking behind her sunglasses, and said, “I’d be glad to.”
After her husband’s death, Olive is lonely, which enables her to recognize the loneliness of another widower. The ending is surprising yet, at the same time, it feels right.
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
slow-paced
Not a happy story, but a very interesting one. It's a set of 13 short stories tied to the main character Olive Kitteridge. She's a really hard person to like, but she has some redeeming traits. The problem is seeing myself in the negative traits.