It’s pretty rare that I commit to a book series and it’s rarer still that I will pre-order a hardback months before its release date but such is the hold Elizabeth Strout has on me.
Gentle, insightful and honest: It is a delicate look at life from all angles. Olive, Again has all the same magic. Our complicated heroine is older (if not wiser) and navigating the issues of a second marriage, a distant child and world that seems to transform everyday before her eyes. Strout is able to lift the tiniest of moments from the everyday and elevate them into perceptions of beauty and significance. A look, a touch, a forgotten comment: all become profound in her narratives.
Olive, Again becomes the centre of the novel without ever eclipsing it. Olive, Again assumes the role of the accidental saviour for so many that surround her. It was fascinating to hear about old age from Olive’s eyes and to see such as well rounded character develop naturally over the course of the book. The astuteness of Strout’s writing has always been a source of amazement and here she taps into modern anxieties and issues without ever allowing the book to be a passing fad prone to burning out. Strout’s writing possesses the magical quality of being modern and yet instantly timeless. The stories have warmth, poignancy, comedy but above all, they are human.
It was so good to be with Olive, Again.
