Olive Kitteridge - July 2021 Book Group discussion thread

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Diogenes Mar 2023 12:44pm, 22 Mar 2023 77,522 posts	0 Diogenes I've finally got around to reading (listening to) this book. I am finding it quite depressing. I don't mind the related short-story format, I quite like Olive herself (despite, or perhaps because, her behaviour reminds me a little of someone I know), and the writing is good, but I really,really hate the folksy down-home New England cosiness of screwed up "good people" examining their lives and reaching no useful conclusion. During the hospital siege scene I was really hoping someone was going to get shot. I shall finish it and I suspect I will give it a 6. It's not the book's fault I don't much care for it.
Diogenes Mar 2023 12:49pm, 22 Mar 2023 77,528 posts	0 Diogenes Also, the fact that David "One Day" Nicholls endorses it is another undeserved black mark
GregP Mar 2023 12:52pm, 22 Mar 2023 144,327 posts	0 GregP I liked it a lot more than you, I think, but I thoroughly take your point. New Englanders in my experience do an impressive line in, for want of a better expression, wallowing in entitled whimsy.
Diogenes Mar 2023 12:59pm, 22 Mar 2023 77,530 posts	0 Diogenes Yes, well put.
LindsD Mar 2023 4:39pm, 22 Mar 2023 60,689 posts	0 LindsD fair point, even though I loved it. But agree about bloody David Nicholls. Now he should be shot* *joking, obvs
Night-owl Mar 2023 5:07pm, 22 Mar 2023 41,879 posts	0 Night-owl Lol LindsD I have the shudders now that I've being reminded of David B. Nicholls
LindsD Mar 2023 6:53pm, 22 Mar 2023 60,694 posts	0 LindsD Indeed
Diogenes Mar 2023 8:13pm, 22 Mar 2023 77,542 posts	0 Diogenes I’ve decided I was being too harsh, raising my vote to a 7
Diogenes Mar 2023 11:37am, 27 Mar 2023 77,663 posts	0 Diogenes I finished Olive Liverish yesterday and discovered that I liked it more than I thought possible early on. She is not easy to like, but worth knowing. I saw comments on here about it being a series of related short stories presented as a novel but I didn't realise until I finished that most of the sections were published as standalone tales before being collected together. I don't know if Ms Sprout had always intended for them to be put together as a novel, but it definitely works as such for me.
Serendippily Mar 2023 11:53am, 27 Mar 2023 28,195 posts	0 Serendippily I was the same. I agree about the New Englander comments but i liked Olive by the end and i felt it formed a piece together