Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout

Elizabeth Strout returns with another novel about Olive Kitteridge, Olive, Again.

And I am so glad that Elizabeth Strout has brought back this curmudgeonly woman in the pages of a new novel. If I’d had Elizabeth Strout’s earlier novel, Olive Kitteridge, at hand I think I’d have read it again before starting this one, but I did not. If you have not read the earlier book it does not matter at all, as you will enjoy Olive, Again regardless, as you read about Olive Kitteridge in the later years of her life.

We meet Olive this time, now a widow, and retired from her career as a teacher. She lives in the small town of Crosby, Maine, on the Eastern seacoast. A town that appears to be much the same size as Parry Sound, with the same sort of economic demographics.

The novel is not only about Olive but also about the small town where she lives. Here, Olive is simply part of the community as are so many others. They greet each other in the grocery store or restaurants and generally know a fair amount about each other even if they are not really friends as such. Olive, of course, taught many of the younger citizens of Crosby and has been interested in what became of them after they left school. Olive observes.

Olive can be cranky; there is no doubt about it. And, the older I get the more I often feel as Olive does. Cranky. Impatient. Intolerant. Tired of the you know what. I get it, Olive.

Olive has one child, a middle aged son, Christopher. Unfortunately, Olive believes that Christopher does not like her, and he feels that his mother does not like him. There are a lot of words left unsaid. When Christopher and his family come to visit, as much as Olives misses him and the children, her idealistic image of how wonderful the visit will be, is soon only a dream amidst the commotion of children, and long held resentments soon surface. There is a lack of understanding on both sides, as we witness Olive’s impatience with the demands of children and Christopher’s inability to understand his mother.

Olive has been a widow long enough to know that when she meets Jack Kennison she is ready to let love into her heart once again. They are both in their late 70s, they are both somewhat worn out, and they are lonely. It is a second chance at being a good spouse – they learned a few things the first time around. They are members of what I think of as the “John Updike generation” all those affairs! They are also still all so human, still questioning themselves and their place in the world, wondering how they got so old.

The novel moves from Olive’s life to that of some of her former students. Circling around again to what is happening as Olive’s life moves on, as she once again is widowed, and eventually makes the difficult choice to move into a retirement home. But, always, she remains essentially Olive, even as she almost mellows. All of us I think, especially those of us closer to the age of Olive in her later years, will understand that we don’t really understand our elders until we are there ourselves.  

Thank you Elizabeth Strout, once again, for a wonderfully satisfying novel, Olive, Again.