The Arroyo Book Club book for November is
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout. Publisher’s
Weekly says
Thirteen linked tales from Strout present a
heart-wrenching, penetrating portrait of ordinary coastal Mainers living lives
of quiet grief intermingled with flashes of human connection. The opening
Pharmacy focuses on terse, dry junior high-school teacher Olive Kitteridge and
her gregarious pharmacist husband, Henry, both of whom have survived the loss
of a psychologically damaged parent, and both of whom suffer painful
attractions to co-workers. Their son, Christopher, takes center stage in A
Little Burst, which describes his wedding in humorous, somewhat disturbing
detail, and in Security, where Olive, in her 70s, visits Christopher and his
family in New York. Strout's fiction showcases her ability to reveal through
familiar details—the mother-of-the-groom's wedding dress, a grandmother's
disapproving observations of how her grandchildren are raised—the seeds of
tragedy. Themes of suicide, depression, bad communication, aging and love, run through
these stories, none more vivid or touching than Incoming Tide, where Olive
chats with former student Kevin Coulson as they watch waitress Patty Howe by
the seashore, all three struggling with their own misgivings about life. Like
this story, the collection is easy to read and impossible to forget. Its
literary craft and emotional power will surprise readers unfamiliar with
Strout.
Stop by the library for a copy and join us for discussion on
November 22 at 3:00.
