by Elizabeth Strout
I didn’t realize it when I started this book, but this is a sequel to “Olive Kitteridge” which I have to say I am not interested in reading. Olive is a lady in the advanced years of her life and she doesn’t hesitate to speak her mind in all situations. As you can imagine, that doesn’t always end well. Unlike the main character in “A Man Called Ove”, Olive is not charming with her blunt ways and I didn’t find it heartwarming at all. This book was depressing, boring and disjointed as it sometimes follows Olive and sometimes follows other characters who don’t always seem connected to the overall story. Reading another review of this book, I see it was intended to be considered as thirteen short stories but I didn’t get this sense while I was reading it. It just seemed to lack continuity and the characters behaved in ways I found unbelievable and not genuine. Maybe I would feel more connected to the characters if I was to re-read this one in my eighties but I don’t plan to ever revisit this book.