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Jul 2021
8:05am, 6 Jul 2021
48,205 posts
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LindsD
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Jul 2021
3:50pm, 8 Jul 2021
49,802 posts
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McGoohan
So... I read the first story and loved it. I read the second one and thought, 'meh' and now I'm on the third one and bored witless. It's both beautifully written and absolutely turgid.
I picked this book because I really enjoyed My Name is Lucy Barton and its sequel Anything Is Possible. Olive Kitteridge quite closely resembles Anything Is Possible - a series of connected short stories that sort of spiral around their subject. But where I devoured AiP in a couple of sittings I'm doing and reading almost anything else than pick this up to read.
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Jul 2021
4:10pm, 8 Jul 2021
127,743 posts
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GregP
Think that’s (end para 1) what I meant when I said I was loving it but the pages were going by painfully slowly?
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Jul 2021
10:05pm, 8 Jul 2021
37,323 posts
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Night-owl
Finished this last night literally about 5 minutes to midnight not that it's relevant
Not normally a fan of short stories which is what this is but they are sort of interlinked.
The first chapter about her husband Henry who I thought was such a lovely man. But married to an awful woman I didn't like her at all.
Somehow by the last chapter wouldn't say I felt sorry for her but had some sympathy. Have we all got a bit of Olive in us
But as I got into the book I enjoyed it more than I started which is better than the other way round so thanks McGowan for choosing it.
Never understand book prizes is there something that makes a book pulitzer that probably doesn't make sense
I'm giving it a 7 poll wise it was more than OK Did like it. May add more when my head is in the right place bit tired today
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Jul 2021
10:38am, 9 Jul 2021
25,414 posts
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Johnny Blaze
It's definitely got a Garrison Keiler/"Our Town" vibe about it. Still enjoying it with 100 pages left.
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Jul 2021
10:42am, 9 Jul 2021
127,766 posts
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GregP
If it hadn't been set in Maine I think I'd have been less tolerant. But yes, we keep coming back to Garrison Keiler it seems.
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Jul 2021
12:07pm, 13 Jul 2021
127,882 posts
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GregP
I'm giving it a 7. I think I like the book more when I'm not reading it. Bits dragged, bits I didn't enjoy but bits I absolutely loved - particularly the end of the funeral story, and the whole of the last one (see Owlie's comments above). I haven't ruled out reading the sequel.
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Seems people on Goodreads think the second(?) story has the young chap rescuing the girl. I rather thought they both drowned.
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Not something I'd have been likely to choose myself. Thanks to McDear Leader for picking it. Second month in a row I've grumbled about a book but been happy to have read it all the same. So well done Book Group all of you.
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Jul 2021
11:36pm, 16 Jul 2021
49,861 posts
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McGoohan
I chose this book because I’d already enjoyed My Name is Lucy Barton and its follow-up, Anything is Possible by the same author. That pairing worked for me because you get a full, proper ‘Lucy Barton novel’ first. Anything is Possible sort of spirals around Lucy, involving various people who know her from her home town.
Olive Kitteridge follows a very similar pattern to AiP but without the easing in effect of a prequel novel. At first I found OK to be just okay. Despite the blurb describing the title character as compassionate and loveable I found her anything but.
I was enjoying the quality of the prose but finding it hard to ever get enthused enough to keep reading. But as it went on, the book grew on me. It’s one of those books with obvious truths in them, but so obvious they mostly don’t get said. Elizabeth Sprout has an excellent way with seasoning her stories with these. The funeral story particularly struck me like that and the last one.
After doubting I would get through it after three stories, I whizzed through the last few. When I took it back to the library, I got Olive, Again out at the same time. In the end, I loved this and have scored it an 8.
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Jul 2021
5:55am, 17 Jul 2021
48,475 posts
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LindsD
Yay! Really pleased. I think you will like Olive, Again
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Jul 2021
6:40am, 17 Jul 2021
128,080 posts
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GregP
I’m open to a group read of Olive Again.
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