Olive Kitteridge

The Larkin family mysteriously retreats from public view. Louise Larkin undergoes electroshock treatment, and the couple leaves their house only at night; Henry Kitteridge sometimes catches them driving away. In this way, the Larkins’s abandoned house becomes “one more hillock in the dramatic rise and fall of the coastal landscape” (141).

Olive Kitteridge is lonely, her son, Christopher, having moved to California with his bossy wife, Suzanne. Olive’s husband, Henry, now retired and struggling to fill his days, takes a woodworking class. Driving home, they regularly pass the empty Larkin house. As they begin to find their feet, Christopher phones to announce that he is getting divorced but will stay in California; the news that Chris will not come home causes Henry to sink into a deep depression. Henry and Olive develop an interest in the Civil War, diving into their genealogy to as if “to prove the strength of this geographical pull on their only offspring” (144-45).

Christopher forbids his parents from visiting as it “isn’t a good time” (145). Olive struggles to know what to do with herself. While Henry begins to shop and cook, Olive plants tulip bulbs. However, one day, as they go shopping together, Henry has a stroke in the parking lot.

The tulips bloom “in ridiculous splendor” (146). Henry is moved into a nursing home; he is blind, unresponsive, and in a wheelchair. Nonetheless, he is “always smiling” (147). Olive visits twice a day. Christopher pays a visit but fails to stay a whole week, and Olive finds that her life seems “emptier than ever” (148).

Olive struggles to balance her dislike of loneliness with her dislike of people. She visits Daisy Foster but leaves before finishing her tea. The mail arrives, all addressed to Henry, and Olive struggles to figure out how to pay the bills. The tulips die when fall arrives. One morning, Olive receives a letter from Louise Larkin and, on inspection, sees “the faintest strip of light” (150) from inside the abandoned Larkin house while she drives past.

Olive tells Christopher about the note, but he shows no interest. At her kitchen table after, Olive thinks that “she could, anytime she needed to, kill herself” (150). Though this isn’t the first time she has had the thought, this time, she thinks how she would leave no note. Certain she must leave the house, she heads to visit Louise Larkin.

Louise greets Olive, and as she ushers her into the dark home, Olive notices Louise’s striking beauty. Though the Larkins had been the richest family in town, the house is rundown now, albeit clean. Roger lives upstairs while Louise lives downstairs, Louise explains, noting that “Roger is not a nice man” (152), unlike Henry or Christopher. Louise talks about her son, Doyle, the “sweetest man alive” (153); Olive is aware, however, that Doyle murdered a woman by stabbing her 29 times, which led to the Larkins sealing themselves off from the world. Louise bluntly suggests that Olive must be considering suicide, which Louise admits “would solve everything. But there’s the question of how to do it” (154).

Olive grows increasingly uncomfortable, finally asking whether Louise is unwell. Physically, no, Louise says; mentally, she is less sure. Louise asks why Olive visited, insisting on an answer, ultimately calling Olive out. Olive wanted “a nice dose of schadenfreude, and it didn’t work” (156). Olive hurriedly goes to leave. As Olive fetches her coat, Louise begins to shout, referring to her son’s victim as “a bitch, you know. A slut […] evil, a living monster brought into this world to make a sweet boy crazy” (156). As Olive is nearly at the door, she sees Roger on the stairs. He silently holds the door open for her, and she exits.

Olive takes her usual path overlooking the river, dwelling on her visit to the Larkin home, but the path is busier than usual at this time of day. She returns to her car, certain she must tell somebody what happened. At the nursing home, Henry is asleep after an agitated night. Olive returns home and calls Christopher, telling him about her visit; again, Christopher provides the wrong response, seeming bewildered rather than intrigued, “as though accusing her of something” (159). After, Olive drives back to the nursing home.

As she drives, she feels a sudden sense of shame and embarrassment, a distraction powerful enough that she nearly hits Mary Blackwell’s car in the parking lot. Olive learned from Louise that Mary, a nurse, has been gossiping about Henry’s condition. Olive had been prepared to yell at the woman. However, after Olive instinctively apologizes before realizing who is in the car, Mary’s response is so “kind, gentle, absolutely forgiving” (160), that Olive actually questions herself: “Who did I think she was? thought Olive. (And then: Who do I think I was?)” (160). She makes her way to Henry, sitting with him for the rest of the day. As darkness falls, she whispers into his ear: “[Y]ou can die now, Henry” (161). Then, she leaves.

Months stretch out into seasons, and Henry does not die. Olive examines old family photographs and thinks about the tulip bulbs beneath the soil. She remembers a soccer field, attending Christopher’s games arm in arm with Henry, and she wonders whether Doyle Larkin ever attended such games. Olive decides that she was wrong to have visited Louise merely “hoping to feel better by knowing the woman suffered” (162). Olive sits with her knees drawn up against her chest and listens to her transistor radio. Soon, she knows, she will have to decide whether to plant the tulips again.

Olive Kitteridge helps to arrange the funeral for Ed Bonney, owner of the grocery store in Crosby. Ed’s widow, Marlene, exits the church as Olive watches with Molly Collins. Marlene, her children, and her extended family take cars to the graveyard. Olive drives to the Bonneys’ house, past the home that she and Henry built for Christopher. She can no longer look at it, believing the new owners have treated it poorly.

Olive and Molly begin to prepare for the wake; Molly tries to talk about Christopher, but Olive is uninterested. Marlene and the family arrive at the house. Marlene was Olive’s pupil many years ago, and it has taken years for her to stop calling her “Mrs. Kitteridge.” Olive remembers that Ed and Marlene were together, even then. Kerry Monroe—a relative of Marlene’s whom Olive does not like—enters the room, and the house begins to fill. Olive struggles to recognize everyone. She feels a sense of “unreachability” (171); she came hoping that “in the presence of someone else’s sorrow, a tiny crack of light would somehow come through her own dark encasement” (172), but this has not been the case. Kerry Monroe is drunk. Disgusted, Olive attempts to leave the house without saying goodbye, only to find her car blocked in.

Olive finds an isolated place to sit, observing the other guests from a distance. She thinks of Henry and remembers the day of his stroke, imagining what he would say to her if he could still talk. Down by the shore, Eddie Bonney Junior skips stones; Kerry joins him, says something, then drunkenly stumbles back toward the house. A short time later, Olive hears Kerry slurring an apology to Marlene, who takes Kerry to go sleep it off.

Olive goes to find Marlene. In the room above the garage, Olive finds her sitting next to Kerry, who has passed out in bed. Marlene tells her that Kerry vomited in Eddie Junior’s room before passing out here. After a moment of silence, Marlene adds that she’s been considering killing Kerry. Marlene reveals a knife, which she briefly places against Kerry’s neck—after the fraught moment, though, Marlene sighs and sits down, handing the knife to Olive: “Do better with a pillow” (177), Olive suggests, and Marlene laughs before breaking down into tears.

Kerry told Marlene that “it happened with her and Ed only once” (177), but Marlene thinks it must have happened more often. Kerry also told Eddie Junior about the affair the day before. Marlene asks Olive for a favor: dispose of a collection of vacation pamphlets in a closet. Marlene is now ashamed that she used to daydream about holidays with Ed, even though they both knew his illness would never allow such trips. Olive assures Marlene she will, recalling how her own husband’s shoes have stayed in a bag in the garage since she brought them home from the hospital. As people begin to leave, Olive wishes she could tell Marlene about Christopher’s divorce, all the comforting lies she and Henry repeated to each other. She wants to “rest a hand on Marlene’s head” (180). However, “this is not the kind of thing Olive is especially able to do” (180). Instead, Olive stands beside Marlene and thinks about Eddie Junior and how youth is necessary for the strength it takes to skim stones across the water.