I admit, girls, I did not love Olive. I don't mean the character, though I didn't really love her either, but I mean the book as a whole. But I thought to myself maybe the reader's guide in the back of this paperback will make me think more about the over-arching themes that I'm just not seeing. And instead there was this weird interview with the author AND with Olive. Ugh. Not so much.
So I challenge you two: explain to me what the big appeal is. I've had multiple friends tell me they really liked it. What's the deal?
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I don't think I can explain it. I have a hard time getting to "love" sometimes with books that don't make me feel good. I can get to "I'm glad I read it," pretty easily with good writing and I got there with this one. Olive is interesting to me - likable at times but failing to inspire sympathy at other times.
I totally agree about the interview with Olive and Elizabeth at the end. Didn't like it. Hokey. But there were some discussion questions after the interview in my version of the paperback. Do you have those? I can share them with you if you don't.
My mom saw that I had "Olive" with me and she remarked that she had liked it when she read it last year. She wondered if her age had anything to do with her enjoyment of the book. Is that a factor with any of your friends who really liked it?
I got really interested in the parent-child & the in-law relationships in the book. And the coping mechanisms the characters employ - a little burst, visiting those you think have it worse than you do, a Sunday afternoon affair... What does it mean for Bonnie to be his "central heating" after their relationship becomes so cool? What is it about Olive that Henry loves? Or does that miss the point - he loves her without loving much about her?
Sarah, excellent questions. I don't think age has too much to do with my other friends who loved it: the age range is fairly wide.
I will say that I can't stop thinking about the relationship between Olive and Henry. I think I'll make that a separate post, as Kathy recently touched on that, too.
I admit that it was excellently written. I think maybe my "problem" with it is that I was distracted too often while reading it. I ended up getting very confused about characters (had I heard about them before?) and thus didn't really take the opportunity to focus on each story individually.
P.S. This is exactly what I was hoping for! Such good questions, such interesting thoughts!
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