This week we started reading Olive Kitteridge. To me this book started out really slow and it was really had for me to keep reading it. It was one of those books that was to detailed. I also did not enjoy how it jumps around so much. It seemed to be one of those books that really had no main character. As I continued to read though I realized that Olive Kitteridge was in some way connected to all of the people the book talked about, so it started to make a little bit more sense to me.
I did not like how this book made marriage look either. The author of this book must have had a lot of relationship problems because every time this book talks about a couple, the people in the relationship are not happy and in most of the cases really like a different person.
There has been a few good parts in the book like when Henry Kitteridge talks about how he still loves Olive Kitteridge and knowing Denise makes him love Olive even more. Sure it seems that he only cares about Denise but he is just a really nice guy and he knows that she needs someone to help her. Something that might not of been a good part in the book but I enjoyed more was the part in the hospital. This at least gave a little bit of excitement to the story and action books are the books I enjoy. I hope that this book keeps throwing in some twists and hopefully it doesn't continue to be this sad.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I actually liked how the book jumps around so much. I think it keeps it interesting by introducing so many new characters and stories. But I enjoy how I’m now starting to see how Olive is starting to be the main character by playing a role, even if it’s a small part, in all of these character’s lives.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you on the way this book makes marriage look. When people think of marriage they think of happiness and love, not all of this disperse and cheating that goes on in the book. I believe that this isn’t a good outlook on marriage because most marriages are strong and healthy, involving people who truly love each other and never have affaires. The hospital scene was a good part of the book, it actually included some much needed action that spiced things up a bit.
I also share the same view about how I really didn’t like the way the author jumped around. I think it makes the book hard to understand at times. The author just brings in far too many characters. I feel like at times it made the book into a bunch of small stories, because you really have to search to see the connections between them. Personally it doesn’t work for me. It is just frustrating when you can get characters confused within a story. Because of all the jumping around I feel like it’s hard to connect all the chapters. I must also agree that there are some good points in this books but it is still hard for me to admit that I actually like this book. Then again I’m not finished with the book yet so I can’t totally hate it just yet. But really it’s just not my cup of tea.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you when you say that the book was really hard to get into at first. The entire first chapter was extremely hard for me to read. It was just uninteresting to me because it seems as though the majority of the first chapter is just talking about how Henry works at the pharmacy and fills prescriptions all day long. The "emotional affair" that Henry has with Denise spiced up the chapter a bit, but the story was still very hard for me to grab hold of and run with. Most of the chapters after the first have been a lot easier to read, however, and the story has become much more compelling.
ReplyDeleteAs for all of the infidelity in "Olive Kitteridge", I agree that it gives marriage a bad rep. Practically every character in the book is cheating on their spouse, and that is just not realistic. Sure, infidelity happens in the real world, but not every person on earth is a cheater. If Strout took out some of the cheating to make it as though some of the characters were actually happy with their marriages, I would like the novel a lot more.