Ponder: Olive Kitteridge

Olive Kitteridge ©2008 by Elizabeth Strout is a collection of thirteen short stories that are interrelated because they all occur in a small town in Maine and contain the same character, Olive Kitteridge, a mature married woman in her late sixties The thirteen vignettes, however, do not form a sequential plot line. I wish I could remember what my source was that recommended this book because I would never, ever, rely on that source again.

Olive Kitteridge, [the book] was as extremely depressing as was Olive Kitteridge herself [the character]. Olive, as the title character,  appeared in each of the thirteen stories but she was not central to every one of them. But I read the entire book, down to the very last page. Quite a conundrum, huh? Why? And how should I rate this book I did not like but thought about and discussed incessantly? My choice is between two options:

★☆☆☆☆ Awful but I read most or maybe even all of it
★★☆☆☆ Ok, not great; some redeeming features; I finished it

The library copy I read happened to be a first edition and the headline on the back cover states Advance Praise –  a phrase that sets off a warning bell in my brain such as the stock market's advisory words Past performance is no guarantee of future results. I've often questioned. "Did the reviewers need to praise it in advance based on the laurels of the author because their opinion might change once they'd really read it?" Not really. Per Quora an explanation for advance praise is explained. 

"Advance praise" is praise for something that has not yet been seen by the general public. For example, when a book is to be published, other authors or experts are called upon to comment (or praise) the work. Generally, these comments come from friends and associates of the author. ..."Advance praise" is accolades that precede the work's release.

So the advance copy reviewers presumably read the book. I read the first chapter and it was what Frank and I like to call a "mood piece" – no real plot, just setting the tone like a coming-of-age movie might do. It was a downer. The focus was on mature people, in their late sixties, like me, so I should have felt a kinship. But being reminded that one was not on the uphill of his life but rather on the downslide hardly raises one's spirits. Being old enough to be a grouchy old lady does not entitle one to act as one.  I declared to Frank that I was not going to read this book. I read the second chapter, grumbled to him some more, tried to describe what happened when nothing really happened – just some "somethings" existed. I declared, "Three strikes and it's out" as I read the third chapter. But under the false hope that it had to get better I forged on. Descriptions are skillfully painted, I will give kudos to Elizabeth Strout for that; but I cannot say beautifully painted because they were not all beautiful. Some of Olive's actions and remarks were insightful yet biting, akin to thoughts that might have crossed my mind but I would have the self-restraint to never act upon. Pure and simple, Olive was a grump. I am still somewhat mesmerized as to what compelled me to keep turning the pages of the book. Perhaps because there was nothing better on TV and I was tired of playing Rummikub and Sequence with Frank.

Next I went to Wikipedia to get some background on the book. There I learned it was a Pulitzer Prize Winner in 2009 and there was a synopsis on each of the thirteen stories. The synopses were pretty detailed so you can save yourself reading the book by reading the Wikipedia summary if you do not mind spoilers.

I also learned there was an HBO Mini-series based on the book that won eight Emmy Awards for excellence in television. A description of the mini-series reads

There's no such thing as a simple life. Frances McDormand, Richard Jenkins and Bill Murray star in this four-part miniseries about a woman, her family and the small, quiet town in which they live — abound with crime, illicit affairs and unexpected tragedy.

Frank and I started streaming the mini-series of four shows. I wanted to discuss the book with him and was not going to inflict on him a request to read it, so perhaps the TV version would be a good compromise. I have watched two of the shows; Frank has watched one and slept through one. There is a bit more plot in the television series but it does need to stray pretty far from the book on order to provide that.

As a last resort I turned to the Amazon Customer Reviews before finalizing my befuddling assessment of the Olive Kitteridge. It was rated 4.2 out of 5 which is somewhat respectable. But then I honed in on 1 star reviews which made up 6%. I read through two pages of them (about twenty)  and they were spot on with my way of thinking that the book was depressing and, truth-be-told, kind of pointless. If 200 people are of my same mindset, many of them querying "...what am I missing?..." then I conclude the author did not do so great a job.

Two of the advance praise statements on the back cover read

A heart-wrenching penetrating portrait of coastal Mainers living lives of quiet grief intermingled with flashes of human connection... [This] collection is easy to read and impossible to forget"  – Publishers Weekly

Elizabeth Strout restores my faith in the word, in the quality of fiction to shine light on even the dark and still make us feel refreshed and cleansed and glad. Strout is one of our true treasures. My God – she is fun to read" – Richard Bausch [American novelist, short story writer and professor]

"The dark", "heart-wrenching", "quiet grief", "unexpected tragedy", and "the dark" can indeed be "impossible to forget"; but by no stretch of the imagination can I call it "fun to read". Since this book seemed to cast a spell over me, still undetermined whether the magic was evil or innocent, I did not feel right giving it only one star. I decided to rate Olive Kitteridge

★★☆☆☆ Ok, not great; some redeeming features; I finished it

but I absolve myself of all responsibility of recommendation if you choose to read it anyway.