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Olive Kitteridge

By Bianca D'Angelo, Rocky Mountain News

Published April 24, 2008 at 7 p.m.

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* Nonfiction. By Elizabeth Strout. Random House, $24.95. Grade: A

Plot in a nutshell: Olive Kitteridge is not a terribly well-liked or well-understood woman in the small Maine town where she resides. A retired math teacher, she plays harsh wife to Henry and strict, unyielding mother to Christopher.

Spinning in and out of Olive's life are former students, colleagues and acquaintances she has influenced, inspired or insulted over the years. But there is one feeling toward her they all seem to share: respect.

Told in a series of 13 narratives, Olive's story unfolds to reveal a stubborn and painfully honest woman who has no sense of self until it's almost too late. Surprisingly, though, Olive does have the ability to demonstrate random, sincere acts of kindness when she senses that a fellow human being's soul is in need of comfort and repair.

Sample of prose: "He turned back to look at the water, and for a long time neither said anything. Earlier in their marriage, they'd had fights that had made Olive feel sick the way she felt now. But after a certain point in a marriage, you stopped having a certain kind of fight, Olive thought, because when the years behind you were more than the years in front of you, things were different."

Pros: The characters are plagued by such profound regrets, resentments and frustrations it's difficult to not empathize with their staggering levels of loneliness and disillusionment. Henry Kitteridge's story line is particularly heartbreaking.

Cons: none

Final word: Love and acceptance are the underlying themes Strout carefully buries between the lines of unhappiness throughout the novel, making Olive Kitteridge and her family, friends and foes tangible, set in a story just as real.