Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth Strout
Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth Strout
33 Rating(s)
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Olive Kitteridge
Fiction

Author: Elizabeth Strout

Narrator: Kimberly Farr

Unabridged: 12 hr 2 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/02/2019

Synopsis

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 Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction Book of the 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

About The Author

Elizabeth Strout is the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Olive Kitteridge; the #1 New York Times bestseller My Name Is Lucy Barton; The Burgess Boys, a New York Times bestseller; Abide with Me, a national bestseller and Book Sense pick; and Amy and Isabelle, which won the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction and the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize. She has also been a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize in England. Her short stories have been published in a number of magazines, including The New Yorker and O: The Oprah Magazine. Elizabeth Strout lives in New York City.Kimberly Farr has appeared on Broadway, at the New York Shakespeare Festival, the Roundabout Theatre Company, Playwrights Horizons, and The American Place Theatre. She created the role of Eve in Arthur Miller's first and only musical, Up from Paradise, which was directed by the playwright. She appeared with Vanessa Redgrave in the Broadway production of The Lady from the Sea. She has also acted in regional theaters from Los Angeles to New Haven, Connecticut, including the original production of The 1940's Radio Hour at Washington, DC's Arena Stage.

Reviews

AudiobooksNow review by Rita Felski on 2020-11-28 10:29:38

I want to comment on Kimberly Farr's reading of this book--it was just stunning. It's hard to imagine how anyone could convey the spirit of Olive Kitteridge more eloquently or powerfully: the accents, tones, and rhythms were perfect. Her voice got me through a bleak few months and I'll be forever grateful

Goodreads review by Scott on November 19, 2021

I finished this book a couple of weeks ago and I’ve struggled since to find the reasons why Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge struck me so deeply. So let me start by just saying; this book was awesome. Appreciating the reasons why, however, required from me considerable introspection. The subtlety......more

Goodreads review by Jim on August 07, 2023

As I write my review, I see that there are more than 23,000 reviews already, so what can I add? Just this: Olive joins the ranks of what many would call ‘depressing’ short stories set in small towns, a long-running theme in American literature, so much so that it is almost a genre in itself. Olive f......more

Goodreads review by Will on October 06, 2021

Olive Kitteridge is a Pulitzer-Prize-winning collection of stories that constitute a novel. They are not as closely woven together as the multi-generational tales in works by Louise Erdrich, another writer who likes to collect small parts into a larger whole, but Strout has put together a compelling......more

Goodreads review by Michael on February 01, 2021

[UPDATED] I don't quite understand what the hubbub was about this book: it did after all get a Pulitzer and TV show. However, I felt that the writing was ok, the narration was interesting, but I never even came close to feeling some sympathy or connection to Olive like I did for Updike's Rabbit Angst......more

Goodreads review by Jaline on August 15, 2019

This novel is definitely about Olive Kitteridge: who she is, who she was, and most importantly, the “who” that she sees within herself. Her story is told through a series of connected stories: friends, neighbours, past students, people she knows in passing. It is interesting, and oh, so intriguing, t......more

Quotes

“Perceptive, deeply empathetic . . . Olive is the axis around which these thirteen complex, relentlessly human narratives spin themselves into Elizabeth Strout’s unforgettable novel in stories.”—O: The Oprah Magazine
 
“Fiction lovers, remember this name: Olive Kitteridge. . . . You’ll never forget her. . . . [Elizabeth Strout] constructs her stories with rich irony and moments of genuine surprise and intense emotion. . . . Glorious, powerful stuff.”—USA Today
 
“Funny, wicked and remorseful, Mrs. Kitteridge is a compelling life force, a red-blooded original. When she’s not onstage, we look forward to her return. The book is a page-turner because of her.”—San Francisco Chronicle
 
“Olive Kitteridge still lingers in memory like a treasured photograph.”—Seattle Post-Intelligencer
 
“Rarely does a story collection pack such a gutsy emotional punch.”—Entertainment Weekly
 
“Strout animates the ordinary with astonishing force. . . . [She] makes us experience not only the terrors of change but also the terrifying hope that change can bring: she plunges us into these churning waters and we come up gasping for air.”—The New Yorker

Awards

  • Pulitzer Prize
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