Summary and Reviews of Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

Media Reviews

Entertainment Weekly Rarely does a story collection pack such a gutsy emotional punch.

O: The Oprah Magazine Perceptive, deeply empathetic . . . Olive is the axis around which these thirteen complex, relentlessly human narratives spin themselves into Elizabeth Strout’s unforgettable novel in stories.

San Francisco Chronicle Funny, wicked and remorseful, Mrs. Kitteridge is a compelling life force, a red-blooded original. When she’s not onstage, we look forward to her return. The book is a page-turner because of her.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Olive Kitteridge still lingers in memory like a treasured photograph.

The New Yorker Strout makes us experience not only the terrors of change but also the terrifying hope that change can bring: she plunges us into these churning waters and we come up gasping for air.

USA Today. Fiction lovers, remember this name: Olive Kitteridge. . . . You’ll never forget her. . . . [Elizabeth Strout] constructs her stories with rich irony and moments of genuine surprise and intense emotion. . . . Glorious, powerful stuff.

Kirkus Reviews A perfectly balanced portrait of the human condition, encompassing plenty of anger, cruelty and loss without ever losing sight of the equally powerful presences of tenderness, shared pursuits and lifelong loyalty.

Publishers Weekly Starred Review. Like this story, the collection is easy to read and impossible to forget.

Library Journal Readers will have to decide for themselves whether it's worth the ride to the last few pages to witness Olive's slide into something resembling insight.

Booklist Starred Review. Though loneliness and loss haunt these pages, Strout also supplies gentle humor and a nourishing dose of hope.