The infamous crotchety nature of Mainers is treasured by those who can proudly call the attributor their own, as well as by those who have encountered it. Olive Kitteridge, in Elizabeth Strout's novel of the same name, is one of these ornery folk. She is a retired math teacher and well remembered by her students, who never fail to mention her intimidating presence.
Stout renders Olive with a keen eye and a type of admiration. Olive is a solid presence with no pretensions and a straightforward approach to life. She has found residency in her corner of Maine and is unwilling to participate in the worldly changes to which she is occasionally exposed.
Olive's husband, by comparison, lives with optimistic innocence. He is the first character into whom the reader is given insight. Initially, Olive appears on the outskirts and it is unclear what makes her tick. As the book progresses, more as a collection of vignettes than a novel, the layers of Olive are slowly revealed.
The youths of Olive and Henry are only seen in hindsight. Olive's story is one of middle and advancing age. Strout handles the isolation of each spouse within the marriage with delicacy. Henry and Olive both have interior landscapes of their own and Strout does not place the weight of the marriage's success on either of their shoulders. She deftly constructs the map of connections, which link the two Kitteridges despite their different approaches to life.
For a middle-aged to old couple in Maine, Henry and Olive have a substantial quantity of adventures. They are held hostage in a hospital by reckless young men, forcing them to examine themselves and their relationship in light of the trauma. Olive is often on the periphery of other people's catastrophes and for all her cantankerous qualities, she is a grounding force for a number of people at sea.
As life continues for Olive after Henry passes away, Strout looks with sensitivity at the segregation and loneliness of the elderly. She loses her only son to an awful wife and then a different country. She is astonished to discover that her beloved child has an entirely different interpretation of her place in his life as his mother. He speaks with frightening calm about her erratic moods and the effects they have on others. He speaks with the learned jargon of a therapist. Olive is of another generational breed entirely and has little patience or belief in the dissections of her son. She merely feels unanchored and left with few people to turn to.
The compassionate scrutiny that Strout brings to the narrative is essential to "Olive Kitteridge." She doesn't overlook the sentiments of even the most peripheral of characters and these gentle amplifications of what drives or burdens these people strike a resonant chord.
Strout makes a crosscut into the lives of ordinary people in a small town in Maine and brings to light the delicate grain of life, which is patterned with instinct to survive and the triumphs and catastrophes that accompany it.