Olive Again (Strout) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
In the first chapter of Elizabeth Strout’s Olive, Again… the man who will become Olive’s second husband writes, "Dear Olive Kitteridge, I have missed you and if you would see fit to call me or email me or see me, I would like that very much." Jack Kennison might be speaking for fans of Strout’s Pulitzer Prize–winning Olive Kitteridge, which inspired an Emmy-winning HBO mini-series and now this sequel. However, like its iconic heroine, this book is capable of standing alone.… [Olive] is as indelible as the ink on Jack Kennison’s paper. If you know Olive, you know how she would respond to the hoopla: with an eye roll and an "Oh Godfrey." It’s good to have her back.
Elisabeth Egan -  New York Times Book Review


Strout dwells with uncanny immediacy inside the minds and hearts of a dazzling range of ages: the young (with their confusion, wonder, awakening sexuality), the middle-aged (envy, striving, compromise), the old (failing bodies, societal shunning, late revelations).… I have long and deeply admired all of Strout’s work, but Olive, Again transcends and triumphs. The naked pain, dignity, wit and courage these stories consistently embody fill us with a steady, wrought comfort.
Washington Post


Olive is a brilliant creation not only because of her eternal cantankerousness but because she’s as brutally candid with herself about her shortcomings as she is with others. Her honesty makes people strangely willing to confide in her, and the raw power of Ms. Strout’s writing comes from these unvarnished exchanges, in which characters reveal themselves in all of their sadness and badness and confusion.… The great, terrible mess of living is spilled out across the pages of this moving book. Ms. Strout may not have any answers for it, but she isn’t afraid of it either.
Wall Street Journal


A magnificent achievement on its own terms…. We see Olive acquiring a view of herself, and coming to recognize as valuable the other people who grant that vision. In the process, she shares in the alchemy that she continues to perform for us and elicits our unexpected, abiding love.
Boston Globe


In thirteen poignant interconnected stories, Strout follows the cantankerous, truth-telling Mainer as she ages, experiencing a joyful second marriage and the evolution of her difficult relationship with her son. In her blunt yet compassionate way, Olive grapples with loneliness, infidelity, mortality and the question of whether we can ever really know someone—ourselves included.
People


The lovable, irascible Olive Kitteridge is back…. In this novel—set against the backdrop of a rapidly changing Maine, ravaged by opioid addiction and economic neglect—Strout wields great pathos out of life and all its attendant tragedies.
BuzzFeed


Strout aims the spotlight on her wry heroine and the characters of Crosby, Maine, in another book that’s sure to have you flipping pages long into the night.
Bustle


(Starred review) As direct, funny, sad, and human as its heroine,… [this is a] welcome follow-up to Olive Kitteridge.… Strout again demonstrates her gift for zeroing in on ordinary moments in the lives of ordinary people to highlight their extraordinary resilience.
Publishers Weekly


(Starred review) Olive may offer blunt honesty that defies societal norms, but her clarity is refreshing and never cruel.… Strout wrote that Olive… demanded [she] write these new stories. Of course Olive did that: it’s so…Olive. Thank goodness Olive prevailed. Exquisite.
Library Journal


Love, loss, regret, the complexities of marriage, the passing of time, and the astonishing beauty of the natural world are abiding themes, along with "the essential loneliness of people' and the choices they make 'to keep themselves from that gaping darkness." Unmissable.
Booklist


(Starred review) The thorny matriarch of Crosby, Maine, makes a welcome return.… Beautifully written and alive with compassion, at times almost unbearably poignant. A thrilling book in every way.
Kirkus Reviews