August 21

Olive Kitteridge (2008)

By Elizabeth Strout

This novel, set in a small Maine city in the mid/late 1900s, follows the life of math teacher Olive Kitteridge from the age of 40 to 72.  A mean-spirited and bossy woman, she is nevertheless married to the kindly Henry, the town's beloved pharmacist whose customers can't figure out how he tolerates his unfriendly wife.  The Kitteridges live out of town in a quiet spot among the trees, which suites Olive.  Life goes on and the Kittridges only child gets married.  The joy of the wedding and the bride's "normal" parents sharply contrast with icy Olive.   Then Henry unexpectedly dies, and Olive is alone.  A loner by definition, she discovers she does not like the loneliness.  While on a morning walk, she comes across another walker who appears to have suffered a medical emergency.  She stops to help him and finds up an opportunity to change her ways and her life, and maybe open up her heart a little.