In Olive, Again there is a lot of waiting and a lot of people dying. And yet, there is an underlying sense of urgency as the main characters struggle to figure things out, which is difficult work because it’s clear that they have more regrets than triumphs. This is Elizabeth Strout’s seventh book. One of the great pleasures it offers is the chance to see so many of the characters from her previous novels reappear. It makes me want to take all of her books off the shelf and read them again. That’s how extraordinary and rich they are.
Strout, Elizabeth. Olive, Again. Random House, 2019, p. 267.