Olive, Again by Elizabeth Stout

Saturday, June 20, 2020--San Antonio

I read the original Pulitzer Prize winning novel entitled Olive Kitteredge a few years ago and really enjoyed its series of short stories about life in a small coastal town in Maine with Olive being the central character in several of the stories and occasionally tied to some of the others.  Then, last year, I read and heard the great reviews for Olive, Again, Elizabeth Stout's follow-up novel which I have just now read.  Written as before as a series of short stories, Olive is the central character in more of them this time and seems to be tied in some way to the rest of them.  It carries Olive into the second and final part of her later life as she has a second marriage and as she eventually has to learn to be alone and begins to suffer the difficulties that come with old age.  She's a character who is grating at times, but is lovable, too, and she mellows a bit as time passes.  It was pleasant to be with Olive again in this second novel with stories just as well written and just as many occasional laugh-out-loud lines as the first one.  I gave the book 4 1/2 stars out of 5.