Thirteen linked tales from Strout (Abide with Me
, etc.) 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. (Apr.)
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Reviewed on: 12/10/2007
Release date: 04/01/2008
Genre: Fiction
Hardcover - 270 pages - 9781400062089
Compact Disc - 9 pages - 9781423350033
Paperback - 286 pages - 9780812971835
Hardcover - 396 pages - 9781602852815
Paperback - 288 pages - 9781849831550
Peanut Press/Palm Reader - 243 pages - 9781588366887
Hardcover - 408 pages - 9782253159780
Paperback - 270 pages - 9780743467728
Hardcover - 495 pages - 9788954611152