Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

I just finished this book a few minutes ago, and figured now is the best time to post about it, because I'll forget!!  The book is a collection of short stories about the townspeople of a small town in Maine.  An older lady, Olive, plays roles of different importances in each of these stories.  Throughout the book, these stories tell of the struggles of her life - the debilitating stroke her husband Henry suffers, her only child, Christopher shutting his parents out of his life, growing older, and feeling as though her life is not worth living.

Olive, as a character, is a very harsh, unforgiving woman, and you really don't feel sorry for her, even though most of the book is "woe is me."  But toward the end of the book, the layers come off, and you see all of the insecurities she has come away, and you're left with a woman who just wants to have a companion she can live life with.

The other stories in the book are good as well.  Some of them are hard to follow at first - many of them focus around an event that happens to a member of the community.  The stories are kind of told as gossip, so it never comes out as "X happened."  You have to continue to read, and figure out what the "devastating" event was.  It's interesting, and it definitely keeps you reading!!

I wasn't completely bowled over with this book, but like I said, they way it is written makes you keep reading since it doesn't come out and tell you what's going on.  So, that's it for my July book ( 5 days late).  Room by Emma Donaghue is for August!