Olive Again By, Elizabeth Strout

Elizabeth Strout masterfully brings her back to life through a series of short stories that once again remind us, that Olive is a tour de force, who meanders about, looking for ways to insert herself in others lives. Throughout the book, the threads of Olive's past-like tentacles, reach far and wide within the coastal town of Crosby Maine.

In the words, of  Olive, "Imagine at my age, starting again." Olive remarries an old friend, Jack Kennison, a retired Harvard law professor. Her son, Christopher has remarried and has 4 children.  And once again, as only Olive can, she reduces the 'weight' of Motherhood into one sentence.

 "No I had enough of babies growing up. Never mind, Kids are just a needle in your heart."

But that is Olive.The reader is left gasping, as the immense tragedy of her words, pulsate and resonate throughout the book. Olive is never-ever accused of glossing over the fine print. She is 'here' and will make her presence known. Elizabeth Strout takes on the 'human condition' and filters it with a megaphone through Olive.

In each of the thirteen poignant stories, Elizabeth Strout creates innocent, unassuming everyday events that quickly unwind,as Olive plants her self in the middle of the story and chaos ensues.The tales are bitter, sweet, funny and become gravely serious, as Olive loses her 2nd husband and moves into an assisted living facility.

It was a rigorous but,pleasurable ride that screams of the sorrows and pain of growing old. Once she moves into the assisted living facility, she asks her son Christopher for 2 things,a typewriter and a rose bush. Once planted, she admires the rose bush from her window, and writes, "My God, but I have always loved the light in February." As she ages, and bends at the corners, Olive is able to smell the roses.

Elizabeth Strout's ending in the final story is true Olive, as she summarizes the crescendo of a life lived on Olive's terms.

"But, it was almost over after all, her life. It swelled behind her like a sardine fishing net,all sorts of useless seaweed, and broken bits of shells, and the tiny shining fish-all those hundreds of students she had taught, the girls and boys in high school she had passed in the corridor, when she was a high school girl herself (many-most-would be dead by now), the billion streaks of emotion she'd had as she looked at sunrises, sunsets, the different hands of waitresses who had placed before her, cups of coffee-All of it gone or about to go."

Other Books by Elizabeth Strout:

Anything is Possible 2018
My Name is Lucy Barton 2016
The Burgess Boys 2013
Olive Kitteridge 2008
Abide with Me 2007
Amy and Isabelle 1998