Elizabeth Strout has whipsawed me, and I mean that as a compliment.

Some of the readers were more charitable to Olive in "Pharmacy", the first story, than I initially felt. I did a 180 in my feelings after reading "Incoming Tide," the second story.

Kevin has come back to Crosby, with an elaborate plan to kill himself. His life clearly has been hard and he is grappling with the demons of depression; we learn that his mother, a talented pediatrician, shot herself to death in the family's kitchen. Now Kevin, who sees this as his ultimate fate, has traveled from New York to shoot himself at his former home.

Then in barges Olive, Mrs. Kitteridge, his former math teacher. She invites herself into his car and they begin a long talk. As they talk, we learn that Olive has her own sadness: her father, whom she clearly loved, killed himself. And she fears that her own son, Christopher, has inherited the family's legacy of depression.

Does Olive realize what Kevin plans? I felt she clearly sensed he was troubled, and she was reaching out to him. She comes across as perceptive, empathetic, sympathetic. And he responds, although he doesn't want to. "Hope was a cancer inside him. He didn't want it; he did not want it," Strout writes.

Then, the story's ending abruptly comes. Olive spies Patty Howe, who's been swept into the water. Kevin, without much thought dives in to save her. And as they cling to each other, you know they'll be saved. The question is whether Patty's fierce desire to live might help Kevin rediscover his.

SPOILER ALERT IF YOU HAVEN'T FINISHED THE BOOK: I wanted to hear more about Kevin, and I expected him to appear later in the book. I was disappointed when he didn't.

Did he end up killing himself? I like to think he didn't. But then again, things in Crosby don't always have a happy ending.

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