"River" is the last chapter of "Olive Kitteridge". This will be just a short posting as we get ready to move onto E.B. White's "One Man's Meat".
The story opens with Olive almost backing her car into Jack Kennison and she then ends up rescuing Jack in the park when he suffers a dizzy spell of sorts. What goes on in between those scenes is a bit of discussion of different kinds of people, different nationalities, different economic status, different educational backgrounds and different sexual preferences. The discussion of differences is brought up through observations of Henry, who "did not always warm to summer people..." The paragraphs that follow feel like a ping pong game, as one person's comments about the size and intellect of Maine natives are dismissed due to their religion and place of residence. All in all, quite a bit of name calling goes on in "River" in the first few pages. How does this fit into the story and the overall collection of stories?

What other parts of this closing story were of interest? I feel like I get some closure by Olive finally admitting some things about herself, such as confessing to Jack that she did hit her son, Christopher when he was young. Not a nice confession to hear, but it felt like Olive was beginning to break loose of some of the prejudices exposed in the beginning of "River". How did you see this final chapter?

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