Review: Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The deep reader, protected from distractions and attuned to the nuances of language, enters a state that psychologist Victor Nell, in a study of the psychology of pleasure reading, likens to a hypnotic trance. Nell found that when readers are enjoying the experience the most, the pace of their reading actually slows. The combination of fast, fluent decoding of words and slow, unhurried progress on the page gives deep readers time to enrich their reading with reflection, analysis, and their own memories and opinions. It gives them time to establish an intimate relationship with the author, the two of them engaged in an extended and ardent conversation like people falling in love.

-- from "Why We Should Read Literature"

This is a phenomenal description of how I felt reading Olive Kitteridge. It was immersive and slow, while being at the same time a page-turner that I never wanted to finish. I would get to the end of a chapter and simply sit and think and feel, reflect and digest. By the end of the book I DID feel like I was in some kind of relationship with Elizabeth Strout and Olive Kitteridge. It's a delicate balance to manage to be both terribly sad and somehow life-affirming at the same time, but this book walks that tightrope flawlessly.

This is a leisurely-paced novel in stories, set in a single Maine town, connected by the intriguing character of Olive Kitteridge, who knows when to take center stage and, crucially, when to step back and let other characters have their moments to shine. All the characters were finely drawn and fully human, but the direct and indirect exploration of Olive is the real draw. And even though it's generally a laid-back read, it's also full of incident and action, both external and internal.

I couldn't imagine a better way to kick off my Year of Reading Women. This was one of the most textured, nuanced, subtle, and beautiful books I've read in ages. And I don't mean those descriptors to be stereotypically "feminine" at all. This may be a "delicate" book on a "small scale," (geographically) but is also a book that encompasses vast amounts of human emotion and moved me much more than a book like Blood Meridian that may be more "sweeping" or "epic" or "muscular" (or whatever stereotypically masculine adjectives you could throw at it).

I truly enjoyed this book from beginning to end and can't recommend it enough. The Year of Reading Women begins with a (lyrical) bang!


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