Olive, Again

Olive, Again is has an intimate, personal tone. It is concerned with the everyday lives and thoughts of the characters as they search for understanding and meaning. Strout situates the book in contemporary rural America, and probes issues that the United States is facing today. The book, published in 2019, spans two presidencies. It addresses social politics, specifically those faced by rural citizens, in the present-day United States.

Strout refers to both the Obama and Trump presidencies without naming them. However it is clear, through Olive’s descriptions, who Strout is talking about. In “The Poet,” Andrea refers to meeting the president and his wife; the reader is made to understand that she is referring to Barack and Michelle Obama. Of them, Olive reflects—“he was smart, and his wife was smart, and what a hell of a job he had, with Congress being so horrible to him. She would be sorry to see him go” (201). 

Strout places the book in the larger, American framework, allowing political commentary to subtly enter the text. In “Heart,” she takes it a step further when Olive is horrified to see her home health aide’s “bumper sticker for that horrible orange-haired man who was president” (248).