Greetings! The USF Book Club will discuss Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout on Tuesday November 17, 2009. We will meet in the seminar room of Gleeson Library (room 209) from 12 noon – 1 pm. Bring your lunch and tell your friends!
Olive Kitteridge is a short story cycle where all the pieces are about Olive Kitteridge, a “redoubtable seventh-grade math teacher in Crosby, Maine,” and work to create a full tapestry that illustrates her life, but each piece can stand alone. It is very popular right now so make sure to order it soon!
How to get a copy: you can try requesting it through Gleeson Library’s free service, Link+, although the book is very popular and may not be available. Try requesting it through this link, this link, or this link. If you successfully request it, the book will be delivered to USF within about 4 business days. Also, you can put a hold on one of the Public Library’s copies. (They currently have 10 copies but are processing at least 30 more.)
“Anyone who gets in Olive’s way had better watch out, for she crashes unapologetically through life like an emotional storm trooper. She forces her husband, Henry, the town pharmacist, into tactical retreat; and she drives her beloved son, Christopher, across the country and into therapy. But appalling though Olive can be, Strout manages to make her deeply human and even sympathetic, as are all of the characters in this “novel in stories.” Covering a period of 30-odd years, most of the stories (several of which were previously published in the New Yorker and other magazines) feature Olive as their focus, but in some she is bit player or even a footnote while other characters take center stage to sort through their own fears and insecurities. Though loneliness and loss haunt these pages, Strout also supplies gentle humor and a nourishing dose of hope. People are sustained by the rhythms of ordinary life and the natural wonders of coastal Maine, and even Olive is sometimes caught off guard by life’s baffling beauty.” –BookList
Hope to see you there!