Olive, Again

3.5 stars. I did not enjoy this one as much as I enjoyed the first book. Although these short stories are very relatable to real life and I do enjoy that.

Olive Kitteridge, taas. Vai vielä? Elizabeth Strout palaa rakastetun hahmonsa pariin. Olive, taas on edellisen Olive Kitteridgen tapaan episodiromaani, kokoelma irrallisia kertomuksia, joista kuitenkin muodostuu yhtenäinen tarinan kaari. Novellikokoelmamainen rakenne antaa Stroutille mahdollisuuden pikakelata tylsiä kohtia ja tarttua ainoastaan Oliven kiinnostavimpiin vaiheisiin. Lisäksi joissain tarinoissa nostetaan esiin muita kaupungin asukkaita, joiden elämät sivuavat Olivea jossain kohtaa.

Olive on vanha. Se on tämän kirjan kantava teema. Rakas aviomies Henry on kuollut jo aikaa sitten ja välit New Yorkissa asuvaan poikaan Christopheriin ovat kivuliaan huonot. Yllättäen Oliven elämään löytyy kuitenkin uusi onni uuden puolison Jackin muodossa – mutta ei sekään suhde mitenkään helppo ja mutkaton ole, kuten ei mikään muukaan Oliven elämässä. Mutta onpahan edes jotakin!

Vanhuusvuodet ovat nippu nöyryytyksiä ja nöyrtymisen hetkiä, mutta kyllä niihin hyvääkin mahtuu. Elizabeth Strout on mestarillinen kirjoittaja, joka kuvaa hienosti ihmisluontoa ja elämän epämiellyttäviä, yllättäviä ja vain arkisia käänteitä. Esimerkiksi Maanpakolaiset-kertomus, joka kuvaa newyorkilaisten Jim ja Helen Burgessin vierailua Jimin veljen Bobin luona Mainessa, on täynnä pidäteltyjä tunteita ja katkeruuksia, kaikki pinnan alla kuplimassa – ja Olive tosiaan vain taustalla häälymässä ohimennen.

Etenkin kirjan loppua kohden Oliven ikä alkaa näkyä ja vanhainkoti – tai siis tuettu palveluasuminen – kutsuu Oliveakin. Tällaista rehellistä, raadollista ja ymmärtäväistä vanhuuden kuvausta kohtaan lukemissani kirjoissa harvoin. Olive, taas kuvaa rakkaudella ja lämmöllä Oliven pelkoa vanhenemiseen liittyvistä asioista, hallinnan menetystä, mutta myös mahdollisuuksia ja uusia ystävyyksiä, siis kaikkea sitä inhimillistä, mitä ikääntymiseen kuuluu.

Loppupuolella on tarjolla iloinen yllätys niille, jotka ovat lukeneet Pikkukaupungin tytön, kun toinen Pikkukaupungin tytön päähenkilöistä, Isabelle Goodrow, tekee paluun. Ei haittaa, jos ei ole Pikkukaupungin tyttöä lukenut, mutta Olive Kitteridge kannattaa kyllä lukea ennen tähän kirjaan tarttumista, koska kirjan arvo on nimenomaan siinä, miten se syventää Oliven hahmoa. Olive, taas antaa lukijalle enemmän, jos Olive on tuttu.

Kun kirjan lopetus on vielä erinomainen, Olive, taas on helppo suositus inhimillisyyden eri puolia luotaavien kertomusten ystäville.

If I could give this book 10 stars I would. Even better than the first.

as olive got older throughout the book (& series), it got more difficult for me to relate to her. i still enjoyed the writing style, atmosphere and humanity that was brought to these short stories, but overall it was just good... nothing to write home about. maybe i will enjoy it more as a re-read when i'm older!

I am not a fan of sequels, but I loved Olive Kitteridge book one and I had to take a look at book two. And, oh Olive. I'm not letting out any secrets when I tell you that Olive forges on into deep old age, forthright, brusque, oblivious, stomping through the underbrush, crushing anything she sees that appears to be in need of trimming, and continually becoming bewildered by her reception on this path of destruction by others.

Olive is a real person, completely human, deeply flawed, yet also deeply loving, and she lives among other real people, equally human, deeply flawed, and also deeply loving. On she goes, stomp, stomp, stomp, crush, crush, crush, everything she sees. And it always comes back to her, stomping on her in return, crushing her in return.

A story of the pain of life. A story of life's occasional redemptions.

As an aging human, this made me sad. But it's a fine book. When I read Olive Kitteridge when that book came out I didn't like Olive much, but that was beside the point, or maybe it was the point but it didn't matter. The stories made me think and they were beautifully written. The stories in this volume are also beautifully written and thought-provoking, but somehow I'm a lot fonder of Olive than I used to be. She tells it like it is and she's earned the right to do that. Olive also hates Trump, which is going to lose Strout some fans, but maybe gain some others.

I can't think of another author who writes so simply and yet so powerfully, and who captures the small but important details of everyday life. Maybe even better than its predecessor, [b:Olive Kitteridge 1736739 Olive Kitteridge (Olive Kitteridge, #1) Elizabeth Strout https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320430655l/1736739.SY75.jpg 3263906], because it gives Olive a bit of warmth and insight (not too much warmth of course, she's still Olive). I can't say I cared much for the chapters that focused on other characters; they seemed to be trying too hard to make a point unlike the effortless prose of the Olive vignettes (granted, it is harder to fully flesh out a character in 20 pages, while Olive's personality is already well-established). But sometimes Strout made these stories more shocking than they needed to be (the old man voyeuristically watching the teenaged housecleaner touch herself, the nice couple's daughter telling them she was featured in a documentary film about being a dominatrix) when the absurdness of normal life would have sufficed. The last few chapters as Olive ages and moves to a senior living facility just about broke my heart, as I could imagine my 95 year old mother having the exact same feelings and reactions. I initially hesitated about reading this book because I didn't think a sequel to the Pulitzer-Prize winning Olive was necessary, but I should have trusted that Elizabeth Strout wouldn't continue the story unless she could do it justice.

Even better than the first.

Olive is one of my favorite characters because she is so prickly, and disruptive, and honest. I loved spending more time in Crosby, Maine. Elizabeth Strout is a genius at writing about ordinary people and situations, and making them unforgettable. She allows readers to see and understand the struggles underpinning the lives of everyone around us, and gives a voice and a purpose to those who might slip by unseen. This book is full of melancholy, but also glimpses of hope. One of the best of the year, for me.