Indeed, the book is actually something of an Easter egg hunt for dedicated readers of Strout's work. The narrative thus drifts in and out of Olive's life by means of both her story and that of others in her orbit, many of whom we've already met. In Olive, Again, it only takes until the second chapter, though she also plays an important role in the first, so it's clear we're very much following her from the beginning.
More obvious attention is devoted to Olive than in the first book, in which she doesn't become the main protagonist until the fourth story. 'The Cockroach': Ian McEwan's satirical Brexit novel showcases a late playful stage in his careerįollowing exactly the same structure Strout so successfully employed in Olive Kitteridge, the sequel is also split into 13 chapters.
The news that Strout was writing a sequel was music to the ears of readers who fell in love with Olive the first time round, especially as she published both My Name is Lucy Barton and its follow-up Anything is Possible, to rapturous praise in the intervening years. To describe the work as a series of interconnected stories goes some way to recognising how the text functions, but it still doesn't quite do justice to Strout's portrait of this one woman and the community she's touched. In certain chapters she takes centre stage, in others she's only mentioned in passing, but as the reader makes their way through the book, their understanding of Olive – including her flaws and frailties – deepens.
It's been 11 years since Elizabeth Strout's Pulitzer Prize-winning Olive Kitteridge was published, after which it was turned into an HBO mini-series starring Frances McDormand as Strout's titular cantankerous "old bag", a retired high school maths teacher in the small town of Crosby, Maine.Īlthough often categorised as a volume of short stories, it actually offer s something more than a traditional collection, because, even though it jumps between the lives of different characters, they're all strung together – some more closely than others – by Olive's presence.
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