Summary

In "Arrested," the opening chapter of Olive, Again, Elizabeth Strout introduces us to Jack Kennison and, though written in third person, gives voice to his inner thoughts. He decided to make the hour drive to Portland, Maine to buy a gallon of whiskey to avoid bumping into Olive Kitteridge (and another nameless widow whose meaningless banter often included the weather) at the grocery store. After arriving in Portland, Jack walked along the beach, reflecting on recent changes in his life and his current state of loneliness. Seeing families walking together around him, he remarked, “How easily they took this for granted, to be with one another, to be talking! No one seemed to even glance at him, and he realized what he had known before, only now it came to him differently: He was just an old man with a sloppy belly and not...