Agawam Pageturners' Book Discussion of Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

People enjoyed the short stories in this book, all connected by the character Olive Kitteridge, retired schoolteacher in a small town in Maine. People said Olive was multi levelled and multifaceted. The book discussed serious topics, but used humor at the right points to break the tension. All the characters in the books struggled. One person liked Olive until she found at the end of the book that she hit (not spanked) her son when he was a child. It also was suggested that her son Christopher was bipolar, and Olive herself was probably bipolar. Olive Kitteridge offers profound insights into the human condition–its conflicts, its tragedies and joys, and the endurance it requires. This was an excellent book to discuss and worthy of the Pulitzer Prize the group thought.