The Olive in question is Olive Kitteridge who featured in the eponymous bestseller written by Elizabeth Strout in 2008. This book traces her later life, her marriage to Jack Kennison and a range of family events as well as local goings-on. The overall impression is that Elizabeth Strout has been constantly asked to say what happened to Olive following her last outing and is responding to her readers or, more likely, she is exorcising the ghost which has pursued her for years!

It's an odd book with occasional flashes of the quirkiness which attracted people to the character of Olive in the previous book and spin-offs but there's quite a bit more where she comes across as cantankerous and out of touch. There are also attempts to make Olive more self aware as she reflects on her past, her failure to build a proper relationship with her son, her habitual suspicion of people's motives and, more profoundly, a failure to make more of her life because she closed down so many opportunities.

It is in these areas where the novel is at its best, trying to flesh out what happened and why. There is a substantial cast of supporting actors to enable this process and, sometimes, this appears slightly contrived. In one episode, the American Poet Laureate turns up as an ex-pupil and churns some of Olive's words and memories into a poem for her next collection. There is also some sense of a desire to be slightly updated so gender issues, Donald Trump, and even Somali quasi-medical practices all get a look in.

There's a great deal about making a new relationship in old age as Olive does with Jack Kennison who, I assume, must have featured in the previous book. It's funny at times as Olive tries to work out who she is and what she wants. Jack, however, is simply the bluff ex-cop product and doesn't have much of a life of his own.

The ageing process described up to the point of Olive's likely imminent death is a fairly remorseless account of decline but the constant churning of memories and the attempt to make sense of the past makes the book interesting. Having said that, fans of the original feisty heroine might not take kindly to her in her dotage! Overall, it's a good read in the whatever happened to... genre. Elizabeth Strout writes well about smalltown America and its decline in a sympathetic way through this series of vignettes with Olive as the linking thread and if you wanted to know what happened to Olive, well perhaps the best answer is not a lot!

I found this to be a depressing book to start with, but luckily I persevered.
Beautifully written, it dips in and out of the lives and the minds of the people of Crosby, Maine, seeing things from all sides of the stories - fascinating, and deeply thought provoking.
It’s a story about life.

Olive, Again picks up after the finish of Olive Kitteridge with the next decade of Olive's life in Maine. A second marriage, the complicated relationship with her son, involving herself in her neighbour's lives. It was great to be back in Olive's world, seeing how she is aging and the dramas of her neighbours and residents of Crosby, Maine. This is great book about human relationships, generational differences and difficulties. I love the way Strout looks at the ordinary everyday life in a beautiful writing style.

This can be read without reading Olive Kitteridge but I think once you've read one Elizabeth Strout book then you're going to want to read them all. I was lucky enough to read a proof copy but I'm looking forward to getting the hardback when it comes out at the end of October to add to my Elizabeth Strout collection.

I love Elizabeth Strout's writing, and I particularly adore the character of Olive Kitteridge. The original collection won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and much deservedly. This is the follow-up, and continues in the same style, in the same rich and complex New England community.

I have so many mixed feelings about this character, Olive. I love her and relate to her, but dont like her at all. She's hilarious and great, and yet I am very glad I dont know her in real life. She's just like me: but all the parts of me I wish I could change or improve. I've never before read a book with a character who feels so real. It's like Olive wrote the book herself. Stout is a genius.

It's so well written, and so dense - like eating chocolate truffles: they're delicious but you can only have a couple in one sitting.

I would say to read the first one before you start "Olive, Again" - there are a lot of references to what went before.

Wonderful, as good as the first one but way sadder. Olive is an unforgettable character and I will miss her dearly.

Meraviglioso, bello come il primo anche se infinitamente più triste ( sì, è possibile). Olive è un personaggio indimenticabile che mi mancherà molto.

THANKS NETGALLEY FOR THE PREVIEW!

Having read Olive Kitteridge several times I was thrilled at the chance to read more.of Olive in this follow up volume, The balance of stories is slightly different in this second volume, with more of Olive herself, and who's going to complain about that? Elizabeth Strout is a phenomenal writer and Olive Kitteridge is her finest creation. I love Olive so much in all her prickly contrariness, She is intensely relatable and loveable, and you get the sense that Strout herself loves her creation dearly. Strout has this way of offering you just vignettes, side slices of someone's life which somehow embody in just few pages, everything you need to know about that character's life, about your own life and about the meaning of life altogether. I just don't know how she does it. Absolutely wonderful.

Elizabeth Stout creates a whole universe from the small world of Olive Kitteridge. She can, through the eyes of Olive and therefore the reader, examine relationships; love, hate, disappointment, family bonds. I don’t think we are meant to like Olive but almost despite ourselves, we do. We look at ourselves becoming Olive – and are perhaps afraid but then accept it – in a way Olive does! The world can either like us or lump us.
Saying all of that I did not find this book as satisfying as the others – I found the authorial voice just a little grating and ‘samey’ and despite myself wanted to hurry up and get to the end. Maybe I just needed to read it quicker.
If you are a fan of the other Olive Kitteridge books, you won’t be disappointed – just don’t take too long reading it. It deserves a quick immersion and then come up for air.



(My thanks to Penguin Books for an ARC via NetGalley.)

No-one can write like the incomparable Elizabeth Strout, her understanding of what it is to be human and penetrate the beating heart of what comprises a community has a universality that cannot fail to resonate with the reader, sometimes perhaps uncomfortably so in the truths it lays bare, such as the physically and emotionally taxing process of ageing. Olive returns, maybe not everyone's cup of tea, but definitely mine, indomitable, outspoken, cantankerous, a larger than life presence in the lives of those around her, an indisputably influential woman, even if it is sometimes in the slightest of appearances in the stories that pour forth about the community of Crosby, Maine, from the pen of Strout. Olive lives through her seventies and eighties, getting married for the second time to 74 year old Jack Kennison, who may find Olive irritating on occasion but loves Olive, all that she is, the two finding a companionship that eases the loneliness of losing their spouses and getting older.

Olive is aware of her shortcomings as a wife to Henry, she misses him, an ache that never disappears even as her life appears to move on, and as a mother to her son, Christopher, when his family come for a rare visit, there is a palpable awkwardness and a moment that opens her eyes as she perceives him as a motherless child, but, who as becomes apparent later, despite everything, loves her. We encounter a piano playing teenager who cleans homes, acquiring cash from a strange and silent transaction with a husband. A daughter cannot bear her inheritance from a morally bankrupt father and his profits from dubious investments in South Africa, she finds solace and faith in the company of her lawyer, Bernie. Bernie is finding it difficult to come to terms with many of his morally reprehensible clients, whose behaviour he has facilitated through the years. There is a family's conflict as it comes to terms with a daughter starring in a documentary of her life as a dominatrix. Strout does not shy away from darker aspects of community, such as the abuse, the toxic families, and the challenges of alcoholism, infidelity, cancer, and the feelings of despair, the pain, and the tears. Olive faces regret and loneliness, becoming considerably more self aware as she ponders over the mystery of who she is and the joys and wonder of love that can sprout from the most unexpected of places.

Strout is an exquisite storyteller, subtle and nuanced, who gets to core of a person and a community with a simplicity that is breathtaking, and does so with humanity and compassion. Her portrait of Olive is outstanding, multilayered and complex, in the way she depicts Olive, getting older, more invisible, lonelier, but still striving to live, connect and learn, about herself and others. This is a profoundly moving novel, captivating in its portrayal of the everyday ordinariness and extraordinariness of its characters, an approach that packs a punch in its gut wrenching emotional honesty. Simply brilliant and highly recommended. Many thanks to Penguin UK for an ARC.

If you have any doubts that Olive, Again can live up to Olive Kitteridge, don't. This is a stunning sequel, just as tender, powerful and surprising as the first. We see the impact that Henry's death has on Olive as she enters a new phase of her life, as well as her reflections on parenthood and her own role as a mother.

The interconnected stories that bring Olive into other characters' lives are twisting and intensely human, plumbing an astounding range of emotional depths and bringing humour to the surface where it feels like it shouldn't belong. What I love about Elizabeth Strout's writing is that I never know where it's going to end up and the stories she tells never fail to surprise me; what you think are simple human lives in ordinary worlds are always more than they seem.

To my shame, it’s my first book by the author and obviously I need to read the first book ASAP which I will for sure as this story was one of the best books of this year for me.
I loved everything about it and have no words but great ones for the characters, world build and the writing style.
That’s the way to get my attention. I Love it!

I love you Olive.
What a whirlwind of a book, I had seen the tv series of Olive Kitteridge, I shall now read the book. Olive again was brilliant, I felt uplifted by Olive's attitude to life, people and situations, she really tells it like it is. In this book Olive is a window, does not realise she is lonely until she meets Jim, they get together and enjoy a turbulent relationship with insights into their former married lives. Both Jim and Olive have disappointing interactions with their children. Other residents in Crosby live unsettled lives that are at times amusing and almost unbelievable.
Thank you Elizabeth for adorable, awkward, acrimonious Olive.

Strout’s short stories are about various people in a small community in the Mid West. She is very sharp in delving into the motivations and ways of thinking in such small communities. Yes, they might be described as tightly-knitted but Strout is able to tease out the sometimes disturbing threads of this “fabric” and show the patterns of love and hate. Not all the stories are about Olive directly but most touch on Olive tangentially and throw fresh light on her character

We have met Olive before and the new novel follows Olive through the ageing process and no she doesn't "mellow" in her old age . She can be as "difficult" as formerly. Her first husband Henry has died but Olive's grief is expressed in a very "Olive" way. Other stories illuminate softer sides of her character. The visit of her son and his family was a stand out chapter for me showing she is able to look at the motivations, secrets and the dark corners of the human psyche in an unflinching way.

This examination is almost Shakespearian although she is describing individuals in a small town. She is able to dissect the contradictions we all contain and how these “leak” from our unconscious sometimes into our actions.


What an author ! She's really in the top flight of contemporary authors.

Olive Kitteridge is back!
This story follows the second stage of her life with a new husband .She is adjusting to this and the the trials and tribulations going on around her. Can she have a relationship with her son again? Will she be happy?
Love reading about Olive again!

I thought Olive, Again was very good indeed. For me, it is that rare thing: a sequel that is better than its predecessor.

Olive, Again has a similar structure to Olive Kitteridge (which I strongly recommend that you read first). It is a sequence of linked short stories about the various people of the small town of Crosby, Maine, in all of which Olive features to a greater or lesser extent. Elizabeth Strout again shows her remarkable insight into character and human motivations and writes beautifully about all of them. The real strength of this book, though, is that it has a more linear structure and – crucially for me – it is far more concerned with the development of Olive’s own life, with most of the other characters as a part of it. There are exceptions which work very well, but the increased focus here made it more compelling for me.

Olive is still that beautifully painted human mixture of social awkwardness and directness bordering on rudeness with compassion, a refusal to pretend that things are not as they are, and the rare, precious ability genuinely to listen to someone with empathy. I found it wholly engrossing for much of its length and some stories, most notably February Light and Friend, quite outstandingly involving and insightful.

This is Elizabeth Strout at her best, which is probably all that really need be said. Very warmly recommended.

(My thanks to Penguin Books for an ARC via NetGalley.)

I haven't read the original Olive Kitteridge novel but have seen the excellent Francis McDormand adaptation. This is what made me look forward to reading the sequel and it does not disappoint. I'm sure that almost any reader can find a point of reference or echo of their own lives amongst the narratives within these pages. Elizabeth Strout feels like a modern-day Sherwood Anderson, portraying the relationships, emotions and milestones of a community. Olive is the common thread that weaves amongst these, dispensing her forthright and blunt opinions. As the timeframes inexorably jump forwards, old age, frailty and loneliness are tackled with such empathy and humour, it gave me a new awareness and understanding of my older relatives.

I was slightly hesitant to read this book as I found the first Olive Kitteridge quite hard work. I felt that so many characters were introduced with almost no explanation as to who they were. Fortunately with Olive, Again, the book started quite upbeat and explained who people were.

I liked reading about Olive who was, by her own admission, cantankerous and could be very rude. She never quite understood any social niceties and therefore struggled to make friends. As Olive aged in their book, she seemed to mellow and took stock of her life and the things she had done. It was nice to follow her journey into a second marriage after the death of her first husband and the ongoing relationship with her son, his wife and their children. Again there were paragraphs which seemed completely random about people who’d never been mentioned before but this time I knew that further on in the book it would become apparent who they were and their connection to Olive, no matter how tenuous.

All in all I enjoyed this book far more than the first. I loved the style of writing, so descriptive that I could almost see Olive jumping out of the page.

Oh Godfrey this was a good book!
The minutiae of life is lovingly described by Ms Strout in her vignettes of life in Crosby, Maine and Olive Kitteridge's thoughts on them. In a very gentle way the author helps us age with Olive and understand how life changes and the fear that can come with it, but also the mellowing of opinion and the need for acceptance and friendship.

I went straight from Olive Kitteridge into this and liked it that little bit more for a number of reasons: 1) I read it over a matter of days rather than months, so the characters and happenings stayed fresher in my mind and I experienced it more as a novel-in-stories than as a set of discrete stories. 2) Olive, our Everywoman protagonist, approaches widowhood, decrepitude and death with her usual mixture of stoicism and bad temper. You may hear more about her bowels than you’d like to, but at least Strout is being realistic about the indignities of ageing. 3) Crucially, Olive has started, very late in life, to take a genuine interest in other people, such as her son’s second wife; a local girl who becomes Poet Laureate; and the carers who look after her following a heart attack. “Tell me what it’s like to be you,” she says one day to the Somali nurse who comes over from Shirley Falls. Comparing others’ lives with her own, she realizes she’s been lucky in many ways. Yet that doesn’t make understanding herself, or preparing for death, any easier. 4) There are connections to other Strout novels that made me intrigued to read further in her work. In “Exiles,” Bob and Jim Burgess of The Burgess Boys are reunited in Maine, while in the final story, “Friend,” Olive befriends a new fellow nursing home resident, Isabelle Daignault of Amy & Isabelle. 5) Olive delivers a baby!

As with the previous volume, I most liked the stories that stuck close to Olive, and least liked those that are primarily about others in Crosby or Shirley Falls and only mention Olive in passing, such as via a piece of advice she gave to one of her math students several decades ago. Twice Strout goes sexually explicit – a voyeurism situation, and a minor character who is a dominatrix; I felt these touches were unnecessary. Overall, though, these stories are of very high quality. The two best ones, worth seeking out whether you think you want to read the whole book or not, are “The Poet” and “Heart.”

I have not read Olive Ketteridge and I don't know if perhaps I should have read that first, although this book is ok as a stand-alone maybe I would have got to know Olive better and liked her more if I'd read that first.
This book is a series of short stories where Olive is the common denominator, The writer covers many topics, some of them, particularly if you are of advancing years, are difficult to read and actually enjoy. Topics like death and aging. The writing is honest and often brutal and depressing.
It took me a while to get into this book and a while to get to grips with Olive, however, I have to say that overall I'm glad I persevered.

In Olive, Again, Elizabeth Strout picks up right where she left off in Olive Kitteridge and brings us back into her universe of interlocking characters in Crosby, Maine. There are even some bonuses if you have read The Burgess Boys and Amy and Isabelle. This would read fine as a standalone, but why miss out on her other work?

Elizabeth Strout's understated and exquisite writing really packs a punch. She has a special way of getting inside the human mind, with all of its hopes, regrets and confusion, and has a rare ability to articulate this on the page. It is hard to believe that her characters are fictional and the way in which their lives subtly intertwine is masterful.

Often that means that this book is hard and brutally honest. It doesn't shy away from death or violence or the indignities of old age. Don't come here for escapism or a light read. That doesn't mean the book is devoid of humour or warmth (at times, quite the opposite) but the result is that it feels very close to home.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Penguin Books (UK) for the opportunity to read an advance copy of Olive, Again in exchange for an honest review.