Congrats to Elizabeth Strout for winning the Pulitzer today for "Olive Kitteridge," our January book pick.

Here's a story about the win. Congrats again to Elizabeth, who was kind enough to answer our questions about "Olive."

Elizabeth Strout, the author of "Olive Kitteridge", January's pick, was gracious enough to email us with answers to several questions that readers had after finishing the book.

Thanks to Ms. Strout, and thanks to all who read along in January.

"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?

When this story begins, Olive is off to New York, full of hope. Christopher is there, now remarried to a woman named Ann who has two small children and is now pregnant with his baby. The relationship between Olive and her son has still been strained -- Chris didn't tell her about his marriage until after the fact -- but now things are looking up. He's asked Olive to come visit, even suggested that she stay for a few weeks. He tells her his wife isn't feeling well from the pregnancy, and Olive thinks he wants, needs, her help.

Most people probably wouldn't call the main character of this story, Rebecca Brown, a criminal...yet. But in the chapter "Criminal" we learn of the events that lead her down this path. At the beinning of the chapter she tells us she hasn't ever stolen anything until the day when she takes a magazine from the doctor's office.

Chapter 10 of "Olive Kitteridge" opens with former beauty queen, Anita Harwood downplaying her daughter Julie's feelings about being jilted. But we're seeing the Harwoods through the eyes of eleven year old Winnie. Winnie is half sister to Julie, Julie's dad having run off with another woman when Julie was a child. Anita compares Julie's situation to that of prisoners and members of the army. If Julie would only organize her day and keep busy, everything will be o.k. Does anyone else pick up on the possibility of Anita Harwood being a queen of denial?
I like both Winnie and Julie, in this story. I love the way Ms. Strout describes Winnie's growing adulation of her older sister, Julie. The simple of act of Winnie copying her sister by putting her own hands in her pockets and leaning back with indifference is an interesting picture.
Anita, I don't like so much. In fact, I like Olive much better than I do Anita. Olive is really beginning to grow on me. Especially in stories like "Ship in a Bottle" where Olive just pops in through the memories of other characters. Olive made a big impact on a school aged Julie. Olive tells Julie's class (on pg. 287 of the large print edition) "Don't be scared of your hunger. If you're scared of your hunger, you'll just be one more ninny like everyone else." It's something that Julie has remembered and the meaning has changed for her from literally meaning hunger for food to a greater meaning in her life. Perhaps Olive's advice to Julie's 7th grade class gave Julie the power to stay home from church and slip out of town one day.

I received word today from Elizabeth Strout's publicists that she is willing to take some questions from us via email. So, if you've got something you'd like to ask her, please email me. I'm sending the list in on Thursday morning.

Also, the votes are in, and "One Man's Meat," by E.B. White will be the February pick. Stay tuned for more. I know I'm looking forward to this; I've read White's fiction but have never read his essays.

A lot has happened. Christopher and Suzanne have moved to California, and then, when Suzanne abruptly leaves him, Christopher announces he's not coming home to Crosby. Henry and Olive, now retired, are crushed, but try to carry on -- Henry takes up woodworking, Olive plants tulips, they join the Civil War society. And, it appears that their marriage has settled into a happy routine. Henry takes over the shopping and meal preparation after Olive says she's done with cooking. (It seems that when women in Crosby reach a certain age, they give up doing what they don't like. Remember Harmon's wife in "Starving"?)

At any rate, it seems like Olive and Henry have put the past, even the terrible night in the hospital, behind them. Henry comes home with a bouquet of blue daisies "for my wife" and they seem comfortable with each other.

And then, poor Henry has a massive stroke. He's in a nursing home, blind and unaware of his surroundings. It doesn't stop Olive, who devotedly comes to visit him and desperately hopes for his recovery, any sign, as she mourns the loss of her son's affection. She realizes too late what she and Henry had had. "What she minded was how Henry had bought her those flowers. How she'd just stood there. She'd kept the flowers, dried them out, all the blue daisies brown now, bent over."

It's a beautiful and heartbreaking theme, of how Olive struggles to adapt and cope and wonder and be plagued with doubts about how her relationship with Christopher has turned out the way it has.

But this story disappointed me, and it's because I didn't like the Louise Larkin thread, which felt like an intrusion.

Louise is a former colleague of Olive's, and she too is lonely -- physically sequestered from the world, as opposed to Olive's emotional distance. We learn through the story why: Louise's son has killed a young woman, stabbing her 29 times.

Strout builds the tension to Olive & Louise's ultimate meeting, and she weaves parallels between their situations.

But I was happy enough with Olive, Henry and the absent Christopher, and I didn't like Louise's situation barging in to the tale.

To be honest, on this one, I'm left a little flat, a little disappointed. Tell me why I'm wrong about this. With "Olive" and Strout, I'm willing to give it another try.

I watched the 44th Presidential Inauguration this week, along with millions of my fellow Americans. Many times I heard the words "hope" and "dreams" in the President's speech as he implored us to believe in and stay true to our ideals. These same words seemed central to the 9th chapter "A Basket of Trips." On the day of her husband's funeral,

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).

Everyone in "Starving" is starving. Everyone in the world is, Olive declares as she barges into the story in the middle. "Why do you think I eat every doughnut in sight?" she asks.

Lovely young Nina, a 20-something anorexic woman, is literally starving herself, of course. She comes into contact with Olive, and Daisy Foster and Harmon, two older people who are having an affair -- first wholly physical, but then blossoming into a real relationship.

Everyone is talking about the Miracle on the Hudson -- the miraculous emergency airplane landing in the Hudson River. A string of ordinary events coincided to produce an extraordinary one. Canada geese flying in the New York City area, a plane en route to North Carolina on a routine flight. Their paths clashed, and other coincidences resulted in an astounding recovery mission instead of a tragedy -- an extremely experienced pilot made a brave decision, ferry and rescue boats arrived within minutes to assist the downed plane. Just like that, an event occurred that changed forever the lives of all involved.

I was struck by the similarities between this event and the series of events that happen in the 6th chapter, "A Different Road."

The fourth chapter of "Olive Kitteridge" begins three hours after Olive and Henry's only child, Christopher is married. I think starting the story after the typical excitement of the wedding ceremony, when the energy is high, was an interesting choice by the author. The tone is already set with low energy, which is reflected further in finding Olive trying to recover from the afternoon by seeking refuge in her son's bedroom. Well, now it's her son's and daughter-in-law's bedroom. How does Olive really feel about her new daughter-in-law and what other clues does Strout show us about the Olive/Suzanne relationship?

I am once again struck in this chapter how important setting is. I felt intruded upon by Olive in this chapter. I think that Olive spending most of her time in this story in her son's bedroom speaks volumes about how conscious she is of boundaries in relationships.

Hi, I'm Andi Jackson-Darling, assistant director and reference librarian at the Falmouth Memorial Library. This is my first experience with an online book group, and I'm excited about leaping in with our second week of "Olive Kitteridge". I was going to post last night, but instead got pulled right into the next section of stories! The stories for this second grouping include; " A Different Road", " Winter Concert", "Tulips" and "Basket of Trips".

In our postings we've been discussing mostly the personality of Olive. But since this is a book group developed from the Literary Map of Maine, I was wondering how the location of the stories of "Olive Kitteridge" works with the stories. Where does Olive live and how does that affect her?

And speaking of locations, I have to say, I was not expecting the hospital situation in "A Different Road" at all. Did anyone else have the same experience? I was expecting Olive maybe being operated on by mistake or some similar situation. What did happen I felt made the story even more staggering. And beyond the physical situation of the story, what did Olive and Henry say to each other that altered the way they saw each other?

What I like about this book so far is how I keep thinking about the characters over and over, even days after I finished the story.

In "Pharmacy," the first story in the collection, we see Olive more peripherally -- the story focuses on Henry, her husband, and his day-to-day life at the pharmacy he owns, including his relationship with a young woman, Denise Thibodeau, his helper there. We see Olive in his scenes at home, and it's clear that their relationship can be prickly at best sometimes. The couple has conflicts over their son, and Olive's refusal to attend the church where Henry is a deacon.

I thought it was an interesting choice by Strout to open the book with a story that doesn't focus on Olive, and I find I rather like it. (I know many of you are already done with the book -- congratulations! I have finished three stories, but am planning to read more tonight after my kids are in bed.)

The first time I read the story, I liked Henry very much, and sympathized with him. I didn't like Olive much.

But the more I think about her and the story, I'm starting to like her more. I think Laura made a very good point in her comments on the previous post to this blog, about how many wives and mothers sometimes feel that no one's appreciating all the things they do for people. And I think Rhea, also in the comments on the previous post, has a telling observation: Olive isn't a "just for show" person. Henry wanted her to attend church with him because he was worried about appearances, and so on that front, I side with Olive.

I still like Henry, but the more I think about him, I think he has a flaw of wanting to make or keep people happy, and being careless about how he does so. Denise seemed to feel like he had let her down. Am I the only one who thought that he was careless in blurting out "I will take care of you"? I felt that Denise read more into that comment than he intended, even with his fantasy about a new life with her "He could find work somewhere up north; she could have a child. A little girl who would adore him; girls adored their fathers."

Of course, I also felt sorry for Henry. He wants to, needs to, be adored, and I don't think he feels that way at home.

My favorite Olive observation, when Henry says Denise is helpless. "People are never as helpless as you think they are," she says.

I can't wait to meet up with Henry again in future chapters, and I'm dying to know how his relationship with Christopher turns out. Will we meet Denise again? I also want to know all about Olive and Jim O'Casey, and I somehow suspect we're going to learn the back story on that one, too.

What do you all think?

Welcome to Read Around Maine, an online book club focusing on works set in Maine. Our January selection is "Olive Kitteridge," a novel of linked short stories by Elizabeth Strout.

I'm Angie Muhs, the Press Herald's deputy managing editor/online, and I'll be blogging about the book with Shirley Helfrich, a district consultant for the Maine State Library, and Andi Darling, assistant director/reference librarian at the Falmouth Memorial Library. (Shirley was the impetus behind the Literary Map of Maine, which inspired this project.) We're all looking forward to "meeting" you online to trade our thoughts about the book.

Shirley, Andi and I will be posting blog entries, and we're hoping that you will jump in and use the comments section to share your thoughts too. We ask only this: when making comments, let's remember that we can disagree without being disagreeable. Please don't write something you wouldn't say to your fellow reader's face if we were all sitting together in a living room.

As far as pacing, let's plan on focusing on the first five stories for the first week, Jan. 1-7, and four stories a week after that. I'll try to warn prominently of any spoiler alerts! I think we'll find that pace will work. I can tell you all that I read the first story yesterday while my baby napped -- and I had to resist the urge to keep going, partly because I still wanted to savor the first story for a while.

Now, on with the book:

"Olive," which was recently issued in paperback, got rave reviews earlier
this year, and it's popping up on some of the "10 best" year-end roundups, including Entertainment Weekly's list.

The New York Times' review said that "The pleasure in reading "Olive Kitteridge" comes from an intense identification with complicated, not always admirable, characters." That same idea -- of an unlikable central character -- also is the subject of this NPR piece by author Melissa Bank.

I just finished "Revolutionary Road" by Richard Yates -- rushing to read it before the movie came out. I loved the book and disliked every major character. I wasn't sure how I'd feel about two books in short succession with unlikable protagonists, but based on the first story, I think I'm going to love "Olive" the book, if not Olive the person.

How do you all feel about a central unlikable character? What books have you liked without liking the protagonists?