‘We’re just all here on Earth trying to do our best’
Beautiful, intricate and full of tiny moments of joy, Elizabeth Strout’s writing is loved across the world. As she releases her new book, Olive, Again, Natasha Lunn discovers how she packs her sentences with truth
Your writing is full of tiny details that feel so real. Do you collect those from the world around you? My earliest memory is of myself as a writer and of watching and watching and watching. We didn’t have a TV when I was growing up and I spent lots of time alone. Therefore, whenever I saw a person, I was fascinated.
I’d stare at them and listen to them – and I’ve never stopped. If I see something, I’m very apt to remember it, even after years. I will suddenly remember that particular gesture, or a couple I saw in a diner, and then I’ll use it years later.
I think what makes your writing so special are those small moments of intense emotion. How do you manage to pack such feeling into brief scenes? I’ve been writing my whole life, and I practised for many years before I was published. I kept writing stories and most of them were rejected for years. It was as if I was compelled to do it; it almost wasn’t a choice. There was something in me that knew, I think, that if I kept trying, I could find the sentences that would convey what I needed them to. I kept thinking, ‘Okay, it’s not quite good enough, let me try it this way, or that way.’ All that time, I was trying to hone my own storytelling voice – and then I finally got it. Partly, what was happening was that I was trying to write as a writer. And then I finally realised, ‘Don’t write as a writer – just write it.’
What would you say unites your characters?
Most of my characters are looking for some kind of affirmation of themselves, without even knowing it. Most of us probably are. We all hope that someone sees our true self, whatever that may be.
In both Olive Kitteridge and Olive, Again, why did you choose to write Olive’s story through a collection of other characters’ stories?
That came to me naturally and immediately. The form of the book is the book, essentially. She’s an awful lot to take, Olive Kitteridge, and I thought, boy, if I was the reader, I would get very tired of seeing Olive on every page. And different points of view have always fascinated me. We think we know somebody, and then somebody else knows that person in an entirely different way. I thought, okay, let’s have different people in this town think they know Olive in a particular way, and then we’ll just see her in a variety of her different selves. I realised that every person had their own story, because everybody does.
What do you hope readers feel by the end of your books?
I always hope that when a reader finishes one of my books, they don’t feel as alone in the world, and they realise that whatever they have felt or hoped or thought has been felt or hoped or thought before, by somebody else. The other thing is that I would like them to feel some sense, even if it’s just momentary, of the world being larger than they thought. A brief moment of transcendence. We’re all here on Earth trying to do our best – most of us. Let’s just take a big breath.
‘WE ALL HOPE SOMEONE SEES OUR TRUE SELF, WHATEVER THAT MAY BE’