August+2011


 * August 31, 2011 **
 * //Olive Kitteridge// by Elizabeth Strout **
 * Hosted by Beth **

Readers may well have come to //Olive Kitteriedge// with high expectations, for Elizabeth Strout's earlier works had both garnered critical attention and success in the marketplace. Her novel 1999 novel Amy and Isabelle won the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction and the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize. Her novel //Abide With Me// (2006) was a best-selling work.

Olive Kitteridge, the 2008 "novel in stories" by Elizabeth Stout, did not disappoint. It won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and is a rich and highly nuanced reading experience that shines a light on american life. Several elements make Olive Kitteriedge worthy of the reader's notice, and most of them relate in some way to the title character.

Olive Kitteridge is rare in literature in her complexity, the clumsiness of her outsized emotions (which match her ungainly body well), and in Strout's willingness to make Olive often unlikable without making her a villain. Olive is exceptionally realistic, and presses on the reader's consciousness long after the book is finished. Olive Kitteridge is also uncommon in that the novel joins the flow of Olive's life in middle age and follows her into old age.

Olive appears in all thirteen stories in the book in a variety of ways. In stories "Litte Burst" and "River," Olive is the main character - but in "Pharmacy," which opends the collection, she is more of a foil or secondary character, while in stories like "Winter Concert" Olive is literally a passerby. This gives the collection both structural and thematic complexity, for even in the stories where Olive is present for only a page, the emotions that play out in them resonate with Olive's life, which will take center stage again in the next sotry.

As a result, Olvie becomes the symbolic heart of her small town Main community, giving meaning to it even when she is unacknowledged and invisible. The quality of Strout's prose is essential to Olive Kitteridge's precise poser. Strout deftly sums up complex characters in small details.

** Food Theme: Diner/Comfort ** Because most of you are back to school, and I seem to have chosen a morose book, I thought we'd better have comfort food!

Beth - meatloaf, baked mac 'n cheese Shawn - 2 chocolate pies Mary- Chocolate Eclair Bars Matt- I'm thinking either corn pudding or another casserole type side. Colleen- some type of appetizer Kristen- zucchini oatmeal cookies

Directions to Beth’s house: **809 Sanderson Drive** Durham, NC 27704 H – 477-7046 C – 417-4134

The house is blue/gray with black shutters and door. Park in the driveway or on the street.

From Granville County: A) **Take I-85** south to Durham.  **Take the Duke Street Exit** (also 501 N). (Turn right at the light at the end of the exit ramp. **Travel north on Duke St. about 2 miles**. (You’ll pass signs to Durham Regional Hospital. After Staples on your right, continue through the Horton Rd. light. **Take a left on Holt School Rd**. (Taco Bell on your left. The road curves around and passes a church and Holt School on your left.) ***Take a left on Valley Dr**. (just past the sch.)  **Take a right on Sanderson**. (the second right)  809 is on the left.  Or

B) **Take Old 75** towards Durham. **Take a right on Hebron**. (at the light) The road ends at Denfield.  **Take a left on Denfield**. Travel through the Roxboro Rd. light. Denfield becomes Horton Rd. at Roxboro Rd. (only in Durham!)  **Take a right on Duke St.**  **Take the next left on Holt Sch.** (Taco Bell on left)  Finish as above.*

From Colleen’s, Jill’s, Meg’s house:

Take Guess Rd. to Horton. Left on Horton. Left on Stadium Dr. (Horton Hills sign) Right on Sanderson Dr. 809 is on the right.