‘Olive Kitteridge’ tales add up to a Pulitzer

Olive, a retired 7th-grade math teacher married to a pharmacist, weaves through this episodic, a novel told in stories. She is a forceful, unforgettable character, at once prickly and generous. Elizabeth Strout animates small-town Maine brilliantly, with insight that establishes the book in a league with “Winesburg, Ohio.” It won the Pulitzer Prize this week, more evidence that when we tapped Strout’s first book, “Amy and Isabelle,” for a Heartland Prize, we were on to a great new talent.