OLIVE KITTERIDGE by Elizabeth Strout
This review is not expected to be read. It’s just to show respect for great
writing. This book flies in the face of
much that is standard rhetoric about what not to do. It is character driven, no matter how damning
a description that is. She ties the
story together, but there is little plot.
Elizabeth Strout’s characters are wonderful, alive, real,
heart rending. If you want to know how
to develop a character, then this is the textbook. Her description and pacing are powerful.
There is so little plot, that, I have to admit, I read this
book for only an hour at a time, usually only once a week. I often forgot what I had read the week
before. But the characters, and above
all the writing, made this book, not just a favorite, but one that I consider
to be amongst the best I have ever read.
