Well I have to start by saying I really loved Olive Kitteridge, Strouts first novel about Olive. Essentially a collection of short stories each giving a different persons view of Olive, Olive again leaps forward in time, and again we meet the people around Olive. I’m not one for short stories but the connection here is Olive, and it makes it a fascinating read. Not the most likeable yet somehow she gets under your skin. A great read and I hope there will be another.

Olive Kitteridge is back again, and has not changed much. As she ages, she is a little kinder, but she is still basically the same old Olive - straight talking, blunt, rude, irascible but somehow likeable. Each chapter stands alone as a short story, but they are all linked in some way to Olive. Elizabeth Strout writes a seemingly simple collection of stories, yet they are so readable. I felt as if I got to know all the characters, and I wanted to know what happened to all of them. Poignant, thought-provoking, sometimes shocking and sometimes funny, this novel is well worth reading.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the arc, which I have enjoyed reading.
I have never read any books by Elizabeth Strout before and I found Olive, Again, a very refreshing, interesting read. At times Olive just blunders her way through life, as depicted in her son and daughter in law’s visit with their four children. She had no idea how to feed or communicate with the adults or the children.
It was refreshing the insight into other people’s lives that you would find yourself reading about, people who lived in the same place or were known to Olive. How Olive managed to be married to two men throughout her life, so she must have been able to communicate and live with both of them for many years. It is also significant that towards the end of her life after her heart attack, how Chris, her son, and Olive managed to communicate better.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, which I highly recommend.

Having grown up in a city where you could be on fire in the street and no one would look up from their phone, I have always romanticised the idea of small town life. To me, there is something comforting about the concept of everyone knowing everyone (though many have scoffed at my naivety) and I am often drawn to TV shows and books that embody this sense of community. Olive, Again like Olive Kitteridge, is a ‘novel in stories’ about the residents of the fictional coastal town of Crosby, Maine. Strout conjures an incredible sense of place, having grown up in a similar town herself. Each story is linked by the presence of our brilliantly unlikeable protagonist Olive, who certainly represents the spying eyes in close communities. In this sequel, we experience Olive, on several occasions, really trying to alter her behaviour for the better, and despite her frequent failings and unchanging cantankerous nature, this is somehow endearing. While I’m not sure I’d want Olive for a neighbour, I was eagerly anticipating Olive, Again, feeling the excitement of seeing an old friend, or at least a tolerable aunt again. And Strout certainly delivered!

Picking up Olive, Again was like visiting an old friend, one that you might not want to see every day, but when times are tough you know she'll be there, steady and practical as always. Curmudgeonly and stubborn, Olive is a wonderful character and I was delighted to be given a chance to revisit her. Once again the reader is given a series of seemingly unrelated stories, with Olive as the lynch pin that holds the narrative together.. The book opens two years after the death of her husband , with Olive at a baby shower, of all things, where she may feel deeply out of place but is still able to offer support and practical assistance to the mother to be. We see her embark on a relationship with her old friend Jack Kennison, and as this relationship matures, she reflects on her past, and how she behaved in her relationships with her previous husband and her son and his growing family, leading her to some disturbing conclusions about her own flaws. In turn , Strout invites us as readers to recognise aspects of ourselves and our own lives in the stories she tells, and the people who populate them. So many emotions and facets of human nature are touched upon- love, loss, fear, greed and of course a hint of black humor. If you enjoyed Olive Kitteridge, you will certainly enjoy this new book. where the author once again demonstrates how even the most ordinary people have extraordinary stories , and uses her immeasurable skill to bring them to life on the page.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher ,all opinons are my own.

Acid-tongued and grumpy, Olive Kitteridge is back in all her hilarious and poignant glory. A sequel to 'Olive Kitteridge', 'Olive Again' is a series of short stories sewn up into a novel. This novel is every bit as thoughtful as that first one, furnished with characters that are astutely observed — the carer with the badge of the orange-haired president on her van particularly stood out for me, for example. There are characters dealing with death, with dementia, with children’s revelations, and Olive often makes an appearance in their stories. Often though, I have to admit I was desperate to get back to the main event - our ever-magnetic Olive.

This novel charts her second marriage to the kind yet flawed Jack and we experience our heroine trying and sometimes failing to adjust her behaviour just a little. She continues to be cantankerous, and while some people can't stand her - one character refers to her as an 'old bag' - others are drawn to her sometimes hurtful, sometimes funny honesty. Watch out for her encounter with a poet laureate - a moment to behold with unexpected consequences.

Strout reaches into the human condition and sets it out before us with moving simplicity. This is a portrait of a woman in her December years, but where you might expect to see grey, there is only colour. A heart-achingly wonderful, must-read.

I found this a very disjointed story. Although Olive Kettering is relevant to each section it is really short stories of the people in the village or related to Olive herself. The essence of showing how life is when one ages was lovely and at times very poignant. The author has covered many topics that are difficult to write about - immigrants, death, family relationships, problem children, lesbanism as well as other sexual devient behaviours and these were covered in a humorous but understanding way. Olive herself is portrayed as daring, outspoken and lonely.
I did not enjoy the book but could appreciate the window on the lives of such a well described group of village characters.

I love Olive and I’m so happy she's back.
I was glad that the new book took the same format as the original and is written as a collection of short stories each linked by the titular character. Olive mostly appears as the main character in these stories but sometimes is only mentioned in passing. This format gives the reader so many different viewpoints of Olive who everyone in the town has an opinion on.
Olive Again is so much darker than its predecessor with sexual abuse featuring in many stories, but I also found it funnier than the first book. Perhaps because I understood the character better, but I found Olive’s abrasive manner more amusing than I did in the first book or perhaps the reason for this is because she seems to be more aware of her manner.
I was pleasantly surprised by the inclusion of characters from Strout’s other novels. Although I haven’t read The Burgess Boys, I understood the references to it and enjoyed the story anyway. However, I have read Amy and Isabelle and was thrilled to see those characters referenced. Despite this being a sequel and referencing older characters, the book holds up as a standalone.
Stout creates such relatable characters and such relatable emotions in them yet the stories always take unexpected turns. I love the subtle observations made and nuanced characters created. Strout is truly an exquisite storyteller with an exceptional understanding of the world.

I struggled with this to start with but that's mainly because I haven't read the prequel.
However I grew to love Olive and her cantankerous ways and the story she told.
Lovely book!

Wonderful to revisit Olive and find that age doesn't soften her. The structure is the same
as Olive Kitteridge, with vignettes into lives of other people in the town. Not to give away spoilers but the encounter with the poet was one of my favourite parts

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book, it was very enjoyable. I found the plot line engaging and the characters believable. I have not read anything by this author before but will do in the future! I will be recommending this book to friends and family.

This book takes us on the journey of Olive Kitteridge in her later years. The story is told from multiple points of view, with different characters whose lives are all connected in some way to their relationship with Olive. I haven’t read the first book, so this was the first time I’d met Olive. Like many of the characters in the book, I found her quirky, interesting, dislikable, yet wonderful. There are people who found Olive difficult, as she waves them off in her customary way, yet many whose lives Olive touched.

I thought Olive’s character was best summed up by her second husband, Jack. “You are such a goddam difficult woman… So if you don’t mind, Olive, maybe you could be a bit less Olive with me, even if it means being a little more Olive with others. Because I love you, and we don’t have much time.”

The book deals with many big life themes which in many ways I found life affirming. There is relationships, families, love, loss, death, illness, addictions, ageing, dementia, abuse. The characters experience a range of emotions, they’re flawed, they mess up, they say things that are inappropriate. They show the worst and the best of people. Elizabeth Strout is a hugely talented writer who really captures the depth and fallibility of human experience in a relatable and compassionate way.

A highly enjoyable read about the life of a character I grew to love.

I made sure I read the first book about Olive, before reading this, and I found it interesting, but disjointed.
This brought me to Olive, Again with a little trepidation.
It was another mish-mash of different character stories, with Olive as a connection, and also a real eye-opener into Olive's journey through her twilight years.
I'd say this was a lighter book, than the first, which I found quite dark in places. I felt that Olive had softened with age, and it was interesting to read her thoughts as she grew older,
It definitely gave me an insight into how someone who is at the tail end of life might be feeling.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Books UK for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed the first book in this series, so I was really looking forward to reading this. Unfortunately, it fell flat with me. I could not connect with the characters and I found it boring in places. I think it might suit some people, but it was not for me.

A quick and easy read, Elizabeth Strout”s novel examines the experience of connectivity, mundanity and mortality of everyday life through the personal relationships of the characters in the book. Seeking solace and company following the death of his wife, Jack’s relationship with opinionated retired teacher, Olive Kitteridge, widely referred to as a nuisance, gives her the strength of character to dare to open her mind to the differences between herself and others. Strout draws on Olive”s growing knowledge of her supporting characters in shaping Olive’s emerging acceptance of all that life has to offer.

I loved the first Olive Kitterage and I loved this follow up too. I like how Olive speaks her mind and doesn't care about the consequences. To her, things get said that need to be said but only to those who are not close to her. It pulls at your heart strings when Olive finds closer relationships difficult. This is particularly seen in her relationship with her son Christopher, his wife Ann and her grandchildren. This book is also about how as we get older, we do change and perhaps do things that ordinarily we wouldn't. I love that she feels she has a second chance in her relationship with Jack and there is the unspoken thread that we only get one life so enjoy it. It's also about how we recognise our past mistakes and want to make amends as we reach the latter part of our lives. I loved reading this and was sorry to reach the end. Thank you Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Books for allowing me to read this book in return for an honest review.
This is the second book about Olive Kitteridge. Having loved the first volume I was cautious about this volume, because I thought it could not equal the first. It did, and then some!
It takes the form of stories involving various family, friends and acquaintances of Olive’s. The stories are very varied, sometimes sad, sometimes funny, but always reflecting aspects of life that we all at sometime encounter. Difficult relationships, problem children, health issues, etc, are all covered along with Olive’s brutally honest personality.
This is a book to be read time and again, always revealing something new.
I recommend this book to everyone without reserve.

The Olive in question is Olive Kitteridge who featured in the eponymous bestseller written by Elizabeth Strout in 2008. This book traces her later life, her marriage to Jack Kennison and a range of family events as well as local goings-on. The overall impression is that Elizabeth Strout has been constantly asked to say what happened to Olive following her last outing and is responding to her readers or, more likely, she is exorcising the ghost which has pursued her for years!

It's an odd book with occasional flashes of the quirkiness which attracted people to the character of Olive in the previous book and spin-offs but there's quite a bit more where she comes across as cantankerous and out of touch. There are also attempts to make Olive more self aware as she reflects on her past, her failure to build a proper relationship with her son, her habitual suspicion of people's motives and, more profoundly, a failure to make more of her life because she closed down so many opportunities.

It is in these areas where the novel is at its best, trying to flesh out what happened and why. There is a substantial cast of supporting actors to enable this process and, sometimes, this appears slightly contrived. In one episode, the American Poet Laureate turns up as an ex-pupil and churns some of Olive's words and memories into a poem for her next collection. There is also some sense of a desire to be slightly updated so gender issues, Donald Trump, and even Somali quasi-medical practices all get a look in.

There's a great deal about making a new relationship in old age as Olive does with Jack Kennison who, I assume, must have featured in the previous book. It's funny at times as Olive tries to work out who she is and what she wants. Jack, however, is simply the bluff ex-cop product and doesn't have much of a life of his own.

The ageing process described up to the point of Olive's likely imminent death is a fairly remorseless account of decline but the constant churning of memories and the attempt to make sense of the past makes the book interesting. Having said that, fans of the original feisty heroine might not take kindly to her in her dotage! Overall, it's a good read in the whatever happened to... genre. Elizabeth Strout writes well about smalltown America and its decline in a sympathetic way through this series of vignettes with Olive as the linking thread and if you wanted to know what happened to Olive, well perhaps the best answer is not a lot!

I found this to be a depressing book to start with, but luckily I persevered.
Beautifully written, it dips in and out of the lives and the minds of the people of Crosby, Maine, seeing things from all sides of the stories - fascinating, and deeply thought provoking.
It’s a story about life.

Olive, Again picks up after the finish of Olive Kitteridge with the next decade of Olive's life in Maine. A second marriage, the complicated relationship with her son, involving herself in her neighbour's lives. It was great to be back in Olive's world, seeing how she is aging and the dramas of her neighbours and residents of Crosby, Maine. This is great book about human relationships, generational differences and difficulties. I love the way Strout looks at the ordinary everyday life in a beautiful writing style.

This can be read without reading Olive Kitteridge but I think once you've read one Elizabeth Strout book then you're going to want to read them all. I was lucky enough to read a proof copy but I'm looking forward to getting the hardback when it comes out at the end of October to add to my Elizabeth Strout collection.