Italics are mine

A page-turner of a story collection: "Olive, Again" by Elizabeth Strouth

I loved Olive Kitteridge twelve years ago and when I found the sequel in a Melbourne indie bookstore when I was in Australia last year I jumped at the opportunity to bring the book home. Then, life in a pandemic being what it is, I didn't open the book for six months. I only got around to cracking the book open a few weeks ago, and when I did, I could not put the book down. Like Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carre or Winds of War by Herman Wouk, it is one of the few books I have ever read that has taught me how to write in the third-person Point of View and see the world through my character's eyes. I loved everything about Olive, because she comes across as so real. As a neighbor I may find her unbearable, but I loved her as a book's protagonist and her inner dialogue was highly entertaining. Strout makes the characters come to life without relying on the usual tropes. As a result, not only Olive but all the other characters sprang to life.   

The best novel ever written? "Winds of War" by Herman Wouk

This may well be the best novel ever written: Winds of War by Herman Wouk. I discovered it because I watched The Getaway starring Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw during the stay-at-home order and MacGraw in it was surprisingly better and less wooden than in Love Story, which is the one movie I had seen her in, decades ago. I looked into what else she had done during that time, and of course (as anyone who followed her career knows) she didn't do anything while she was in that famously toxic relationship with McQueen, but in the early 1980s, at almost 45, she played Natalie Jastrow, who was supposed to be 15 years younger, and while she does look a bit too old for the role she was also perfect for it, showcasing a spunk that even Jenny Cavilleri in Love Story could not match. (Jane Seymour replaced her in the sequel, War and Remembrance.)

The TV mini-series is excellent, all 10+ hours of it, but this got me interested in seeing how the mini-series differed from the book itself. At almost 900 pages, the book was always supposed to be daunting, but it dazzled by the sense of detail and Wouk's ability to get in his characters' head. This is without a doubt what I learnt most from this book: the way to inhabit a world and to help readers see it through a character's eyes. 

Just a phenomenal book and a top-notch mini-series! Highly recommended for readers and writers alike: readers will be transported to another world and writers will learn third-person point-of-view from the best. A true gem.