Olive Kitteridge

The latest title to fall in my ongoing quest to read all the Pulitzer Prize winners for fiction is actually the newest one on the list.

Elizabeth Strout's novel Olive Kitteridge was just announced a few weeks ago.

It's actually more of a collection of 13 different stories, all of which can stand alone. The unifying element is the title character, who appears (to varying degrees) in each one of these tales about the people who live in the fictional town of Crosby on the coast of Maine.

This book definitely deserves all the accolades it has been receiving.

The only bit of negative criticism I have is that it has a very *CROWDED* cast of characters--105 names by my count.

Fortunately, Olive stands out from that crowd. To be honest, though, she's not very likeable in the first few pages. Dare I say she comes off as a foul-mouthed harpy? No?

Well, just as with the real characters ye socks no doubt encounter on a daily basis, Olive does eventually evoke some sympathy--if not actual admiration--as more aspects of her personality are revealed. At the end of the book, she remains a very flawed human being, but the reader is willing to forgive those flaws after 13 tales explain why she cannot be defined in two-dimensional terms.

Definitely worth the read. Check it out for yourselves.