A glimpse at a forthcoming novel from Elizabeth Strout

Good news in current New Yorker that Elizabeth Strout is back with a novel/story collection following up on what's probably her best and best-known book, Olive Kitteridge. The current issue includes what's obviously a selection from the forthcoming Kitteridge book, Motherless Child, and it's an excellent piece that stands up well on its own and will obviously be a key element in Strout's continuing development if this character and her environs. As we left off several years back (with an excellent miniseries in between), Olive is in her modest house on the coast of Maine, children off in NY or other places (does she have more than one adult child? I can't recall) and newly involved with a neighbor who's also widowed but seems to be more prosperous and highly educated (a retired Harvard professort) than she. This piece begins w/ Olive anticipating the arrival for a 3-day visit of her son, his wife, their two very young children, and her two young children from a previous marriage. Olive hasn't seen her son for 3 years. So this is a highly fraught visit, sure to be disastrous. Olive's personality is unchanged: She's cranky and a malcontent and finds it difficult to be flexible or accommodating in any way. Story begins w/ her annoyance that her son and crew are late in arriving, and proceeds from there. One example will suffice: the kids and parents are up before she is in the morning; she comes downstairs in robe, and everyone's know of annoyed that she has no food there for breakfast, not even cereal. So who in their right minds, anticipating a three-day visit from a family of 6, doesn't put in some kid-friendly provisions? Who sleeps in while the family of 6 wakes up? Who then drives to the story, comes back w/ 1 box of Cheerios, and then is told they're almost out of milk? So we're completely annoyed w/ her, yet her son seems no prize, either and the kids seem sullen and w/drawn - what a crew. Yet there's something in Strout's portrayal that makes us root for Olive despite her flaws and failings - she's trying hard to make it in a tough world, and she seems to want what all of us do: Only connect. Her husband to be is a bit of a saving grace as well; he obviously sees something in her beyond or beneath her obstreperous front. All told, a fine short story and a window onto a forthcoming novel that's likely to be well received.