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Olive Kitteridge

Audiobook
0 of 1 copy available
0 of 1 copy available
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE • The beloved first novel featuring Olive Kitteridge, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of My Name is Lucy Barton and the Oprah’s Book Club pick Olive, Again

“Fiction lovers, remember this name: Olive Kitteridge. . . . You’ll never forget her.”—USA Today

“Strout animates the ordinary with astonishing force.”—The New Yorker
One of the New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post Book World, USA Today, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, People, Entertainment Weekly, The Christian Science Monitor, The Plain Dealer, The Atlantic, Rocky Mountain News, Library Journal
 
At times stern, at other times patient, at times perceptive, at other times in sad denial, Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher, deplores the changes in her little town of Crosby, Maine, and in the world at large, but she doesn’t always recognize the changes in those around her: a lounge musician haunted by a past romance; a former student who has lost the will to live; Olive’s own adult child, who feels tyrannized by her irrational sensitivities; and her husband, Henry, who finds his loyalty to his marriage both a blessing and a curse.
As the townspeople grapple with their problems, mild and dire, Olive is brought to a deeper understanding of herself and her life—sometimes painfully, but always with ruthless honesty. Olive Kitteridge offers profound insights into the human condition—its conflicts, its tragedies and joys, and the endurance it requires.
 
The inspiration for the Emmy Award–winning HBO miniseries starring Frances McDormand, Richard Jenkins, and Bill Murray
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    • AudioFile Magazine
      Sandra Burr's smoky voice, cast with a Maine accent, is perfect for portraying no-nonsense Olive Kitteridge. Burr's range is also large enough to characterize the men, children, and more soft-spoken women Olive encounters. Designed as a collection of short stories, the novel takes Olive from young adulthood to her senior years. She's not featured in every story; in some she makes only brief cameos that serve to depict her small town and its residents. Burr is strong in capturing the comfortable marriage of Olive and Henry, and their strained relationship with their son. Listeners will long remember Burr's characterization of Olive and her struggles with both common and uncommon problems. J.J.B. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      March 24, 2008
      Strout's tale of an aging schoolteacher too obsessed with the deterioration of her little town of Crosby, Maine, to realize the problems plaguing her own life, is read with vigor by Sandra Burr. Burr's reading makes Strout's characters rich and wonderful in every way, bringing a well-rounded originality to each one. As Olive, Burr's voice slips into a nagging, aged groan that seems perfectly suited for the central character's downtrodden personality. As Olive's husband, Henry, Burr is understated yet powerful. She understands this poignant tale so entirely that her reading becomes reality for the listener. There is a certain melancholy that infects this story, and Burr is poised to capture and relate it to her audience. Simultaneous release with the Random House hardcover (Reviews, Dec. 10).

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Kimberly Farr has previously narrated two other Elizabeth Strout novels, earning Earphones Awards for both. Her clear grasp of Strout's characterizations and the flow of her delivery are, therefore, not surprising but remain praiseworthy. While named for a single, recurring character--an emotionally unpredictable yet surprisingly sympathetic one--OLIVE KITTERIDGE uses a village of coastal Maine personalities to create its intimate portrait of communal and solitary life. Olive's relationship to her husband and son form the core of the novel, but it's her relationship to the town that binds the disparate stories within this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel together. The many who fell for Olive back in 2008 will be delighted to revisit her through Farr's astute retelling. K.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from December 10, 2007
      Thirteen linked tales from Strout (Abide with Me
      , etc.) present a heart-wrenching, penetrating portrait of ordinary coastal Mainers living lives of quiet grief intermingled with flashes of human connection. The opening “Pharmacy” focuses on terse, dry junior high-school teacher Olive Kitteridge and her gregarious pharmacist husband, Henry, both of whom have survived the loss of a psychologically damaged parent, and both of whom suffer painful attractions to co-workers. Their son, Christopher, takes center stage in “A Little Burst,” which describes his wedding in humorous, somewhat disturbing detail, and in “Security,” where Olive, in her 70s, visits Christopher and his family in New York. Strout’s fiction showcases her ability to reveal through familiar details—the mother-of-the-groom’s wedding dress, a grandmother’s disapproving observations of how her grandchildren are raised—the seeds of tragedy. Themes of suicide, depression, bad communication, aging and love, run through these stories, none more vivid or touching than “Incoming Tide,” where Olive chats with former student Kevin Coulson as they watch waitress Patty Howe by the seashore, all three struggling with their own misgivings about life. Like this story, the collection is easy to read and impossible to forget. Its literary craft and emotional power will surprise readers unfamiliar with Strout.

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