Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout (1)

Olive Kitteridge is a collection of short stories that create a picture of the title character. Some of the vignettes are told from Olive's perspective. In others she is practically unmentioned, except for a single comment she has made to a former student, or an appearance at a local restaurant. Olive is not a particularly likable character. She is the scariest teacher at the local junior high, critical of her neighbors and family, unapologetic for her faults and mistakes, and seems incapable of reflection or introspection. So why write a book about an ordinary town and its crankiest old lady?

Few characters in this book are admirable. But they are all so real. Olive may be the bitchy wife and mother that she seems from the initial story, but she is also compassionate, individual, unrelenting. Olive and the locals don't play archetypes. They are sad, struggling people, in the way that the readers probably are. Anorexia, divorce, affairs, strokes, unhappy families, suicidal thoughts, unemployment, break ups are all quite trivial in a global perspective. They don't live with a global perspective, no one really does. We all have absolutely common problems that plague, confuse, and transform us.

I was bored, occasionally, by the ordinariness, but Strout's writing was pleasant and strong. It was unusual to read about the conflicts and hardships of the elderly, so much death, loss and change. I never came around to liking Olive. But you don't have to like Olive, or any of the other characters, to learn something from the book. It left me wondering how well I can really know other people. It made me certain that I need to be willing to change and accommodate others if I want to be happy. It also reminded me about the importance and rarity of genuine kindness, acts not coated in fake sweetness, but done for the good of doing them. Goodness is not a thing people are, but a thing people do.