Olive Kitteridge (Olive Kitteridge, #1) in Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge

May 08, 2009 martha rated it it was amazing

Shelves: year-2010, 5-star-favs

I don't think you can count my review as in any way objective, because this book is like someone made a list and then wrote about every single specific thing I find compelling or heartwrenching. Old men, loneliness, the loneliness of old age, New England, fraught parent & child relationships, life after loss. I think Henry is one of my new favorite fictional characters of all time.

Plus it was so very very well written. I never wanted it to end. ...more

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Aug 17, 2009 Kate rated it did not like it

After finishing this book, I thoroughly resent the time I spent on it. This "novel in stories", while well-intentioned, falls short. Ringing all of the stories directly or tangentially around Olive Kitteridge didn't work even half the time. On top of this, while I understand that Olive is meant to be a flawed character, she is EXTREMELY unlikable.

Lastly, I listened to this on audio, and this was hands-down some of the worst narration I've ever heard. Explain to me, please, why every resident ove ...more

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May 21, 2009 Alison rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: books-in-2010

I loved this book! I was a little put off before I read this since it was a collection of short stories, but I can't imagine this story being told any other way. My heart just went out to Olive and I wanted to keep reading to see what snippets of her life we would get a glimpse of in the next story. ...more

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Nov 06, 2011 Vanessa rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2011

This is not a story about Olive Kitteridge. Mrs Kitteridge is the lynchpin in a series of stories about couples and singletons in small-town Maine, sometimes looming large in the foreground and sometimes not having even a single line of spoken dialogue. She is a retired schoolteacher, and many of the characters are former students whose lives have nothing to do with hers, except that in times of reflection or crisis, her severe personality comes back to them, and we can see how their brush with ...more

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Dec 01, 2009 Lydia Presley rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: short_stories, 2010, fiction

I'm always a little bit intimidated when I pick up books stamped with a little gold seal that proclaims them a winner of the Pulitzer Prize. When I look at that little sticker a little voice inside of my head tells me: "You better like this book because people a whole lot smarter than you found it to be amazing".

Then I start to read, and as I read I have arguments with myself. I go back and forth with thoughts.

Well, it really is quite beautifully written.
Yes, but it's so incredibly depressing!
W ...more

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