
"Winter Concert"
Posted by Andi Darling
I read "Winter Concert" on a cold snowy afternoon and how fitting to read this story during a storm. I picked right up on the several references to Jane's new "nice black coat" and felt warmed at the beginning of the story. I started out believing that Bob and Jane were the one couple in Olive Kitteridge's world who were not having problems! But then the cold started creeping in as I started stringing together the various hints through images such as Bob's image of the roof falling in on he and Jane. And of Jane's recollection of their honeymoon fight centered around Bob's fear that he'd married a "Pleasant, but dull" (pg. 186) woman. And the references to Jane's "nice black coat" changed for me. Strout notes that Jane wears her coat buttoned right up so it began to appear to me that Jane is a bit uptight (yes, I'm a child of the 60's).
Were there other cues and images that led you to believe that the roof was (even figuratively) indeed going to fall on Jane and Bob by the end of the story?
Posted at 03:56 PM
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