Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
(2008) 270 pages

I would rate this book a four star out of five, due to the fact that it teaches many life lessons in a humorous and often subtle way. It teaches the reader about the nuances of love, how not everything is perfect, and that there are insecurities present everywhere, and in everyone. It is a story that centers around Olive Kitteridge, hence the title of the book, but consists of many different short stories that can stand alone, but also work together to create the novel. It mainly features the marriages, lives, and relationships between the older residents in a town, and shows how even as people age, uncertainty is always there. They are not living the fairy-tale romance life after finding their romantic partner and growing old with them, but instead are still navigating love’s complexities. In an age where romance is so idealized and social media only portrays perfection, Olive Kitteridge proves that real love is not like those in the movies, but just simply living, choosing to share one’s limited time with another person.