Review by Amanda Hampson

Winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, this is a collection of 13 interwoven stories drawn from the lives of the community of Crosby, a small town in coastal Maine USA. 

The stories explore the lives of a number of characters in the town and each is beautifully crafted, resonant with underlying truth. Olive Kitteridge is the strongest character and the single thread drawn through all the stories. Stroud cleverly reveals her characters through the prism of Olive’s unreliable judgements and prejudices but still allows us to draw our own conclusions.

As a former schoolteacher, Olive has been a person of influence in the community - not always making a positive contribution. She’s not well liked and is often domineering, belligerent and dismissive. She’s a difficult woman and unrepentant about her attitude, managing to drive away the son she adores and to alienate her daughter-in-law. Yet she is such a genuine character it’s difficult to not feel compassion for her as someone whose intentions are good but whose actions are often misunderstood.  

The clever interweaving of the stories allows for deep exploration of a variety of characters and a series of compelling tales told from different perspectives. New York Times reviewer Louisa Thomas sums it up succinctly:  “It manages to combine the sustained, messy investigation of the novel with the flashing insight of the short story. By its very structure, sliding in and out of different tales and different perspectives, it illuminates both what people understand about others and what they understand about themselves.”

Amanda Hampson is the author of The Olive Sisters and Two for the Road and also runs fiction and memoir writing workshops:www.thewriteworkshops.com.