Olive Kitteridge is a Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Elizabeth Strout which follows Olive, a retired schoolteacher and her life over the course of 25 years in the small town of Crosby, Maine. This novel explores themes of family, relationships, love, mental health and mortality through Olive’s interactions with the people around her.
Olive is portrayed as a surly, curmudgeonly woman, who is difficult to get close to and distant from her family. She is acerbic and can put down people simply to protect her own feelings. As the novel progresses, more layers of Olive’s personality are revealed, showing a woman who tries to remain emotionally distant and objective in order to protect herself, yet still cares deeply for those around her.
Olive’s life is explored through the lens of her marriage to Henry, a former classmate and local pharmacist. While their marriage is often strained, they both love and rely on each other. Both are struggling to come to terms with their failures and disappointments, and their marriage is a source of solace.
The novel is comprised of 13 interconnected short stories, set in the same town during different points in time. Each story intertwines the lives of different characters, showing the ways in which their lives affect each other.
Themes of mental health, family and relationships are explored through the characters of Betty, Finch, and Jack — Olive's son, an unconventional mother figure to a brilliant student of hers, and her nephew. All three characters have experienced some form of trauma in their lives and struggle with mental health issues; they examine how they can continue to function in society while still experiencing pain and how relationships, whether positive or negative, can be healing.
In the end, the novel brings Olive’s story full circle, as it is revealed that she has been struggling with depression since the death of her mother when Olive was a child. This loss colored Olive’s relationships with those around her in both positive and negative ways, and when her depression worsens, Olive’s ability to cope and understand her relationships with others is severely impaired.
Olive Kitteridge is a novel that explores the complexities of human relationships and the power of love, compassion and understanding to help each individual find his or her own path to healing. Despite her rough exterior, Olive’s struggles and triumphs are powerful and poignant, and her story is one that not only continues to challenge and inspire readers but also, to illuminate the power of empathy and compassion in helping people to heal.
