Olive Kitteridge, by Elizabeth Strout

 

Characters
1 – Pharmacy	2 – Incoming Tide
Olive Kitteridge -high school math teacher Henry – pharmacist Christopher – son, podiatrist   Denise Thibedes – clerk in pharmacy Henry – husband, killed in hunting accident   Jerry McCarthy – delivery person, married Denise	Patty Howe – waitress, miscarriages   Kevin Coulson – contemplating suicide, studied psychiatry
3 – The Piano Player	4 – A Little Burst
Angela O’Meara – piano player in bar   Malcolm Moody – affair   Walter Dalton   Simon – lawyer, used to play piano	“little bursts” – small kindnesses   Dr. Suzanne – marries Christopher (Olive steals her bra and puts marker line on sweater)
5 – Starving	6 – A Different Road
Harmon – owns marina Bonnie – wife Children – Kevin, Derrick and 2 more   Daisy Foster – affair with Harmon Copper – deceased husband	Christopher and Suzanne – move to CA   Hospital – 2 men rob hospital for drugs and hold Olive, Henry and two others in restroom
7 – Winter Concert	8 – Tulips
Bob Houlton Jane – school nurse   Alan and Donna Granger – “The Lydias”	Henry – stroke, in nursing home   Roger Larkin Louise – guidance counselor Doyle – son, stabbed someone
9 – Basket of Trips	10 – Ship in a Bottle
Ed Bonney – grocer, funeral Marlene – widow Children – Ed (coast guard), Lee Ann (nursing school), Cheryl (high school)   Kerry Monroe – cousin, lived above garage, brief affair with Ed	Anita and Jim Harwood   Julie – 21, engaged, fiancé (Bruce) called off wedding at the ceremony, she went to Boston to see him   Winnie – age 11
11 – Security	12 – Criminal
Christopher – in New York Ann – second wife, pregnant Theodore and Annabelle – Ann’s children from two different relationships   Sean O’Casey – upstairs tenant Jim – father, reciprocal attraction with Olive   Olive went to visit at Christopher’s request   Olive held by airport security for refusing to take off shoes	Rebecca Brown Father – minister Mother -ran away, actress, Scientologist   David - boyfriend
13 – River
Jack Kennison – Harvard grad Wife – deceased   Shared meals out with Olive

 

NOTE: Page numbers are from the 2008 Random House Trade Paperback edition.

1.      Was this one story with many chapters or a collection of short stories with recurring characters?  What were you expecting and how did you understand the book once you started?

2.      Besides the Kitteridge’s, were there any other characters that stood out for you, that you remember?

3.      What did you think about Olive?   Would you want to know her?   Do you think you would be friends?

4.      Olive and her son, Christopher, never seemed to be able to communicate well.  Why was Christopher “never able to say, ‘Mom, I miss you.’” (page 211)?  Was it more his fault, Olive’s fault, or just their personalities?

5.      At the end of “Criminal,” Rebecca overheard two policemen telling a man from the bar who they arrested, “You have the right to remain silent” (page 250).  She then took a barbecue starter, old postcards from her mother, and two cigarette lighters and left the house.   The last sentence was, “If would be worth the arrest if they put it like that.” (page 250).   What did you think Rebecca was going to do?

 

6.      One statement that stood out for me was the idea of “big bursts” (big moments in life like marriage or children) and “little bursts” (small kindnesses from people you meet during your day) on pages 68 and 69.  Olive thought the big bursts “held dangerous, unseen currents” (page 68) which was why the little bursts throughout the day were so important.  Do you think this is true?

7.      What examples of “big bursts” and “little bursts” did you find throughout the novel?

8.      Six of the chapters were published as stand-alone short stories in magazines such as Seventeen and The New Yorker.  (See copyright page.)  How do you think they would have been received in that format?

9.      In an interview at the end of my copy of the book, the author was asked what she hoped readers would get out of reading this book.  Her reply was, “I would hope that my readers feel a sense of awe at the quality of human endurance” and “I would also hope that readers receive a larger…or different understanding, of what it means to be human” (page 281).  Is this what you took away from the book?   If not, did you gain any other insight?

10. This book won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2009.   The criteria are that the book has to be by a distinguished American author and should preferably deal with American life.   Did this book do that for you?