A series of interesting authors describe their “buttonhole books”: the new titles, beloved classics, or obscure favorites that they enthusiastically recommend to anyone who will listen. 

In the most recent installment, author Melissa Bank discusses Elizabeth Strout’s novel Olive Kitteridge in an essay titled “Who Says You Have to Like a Character?”

Whenever people say they didn’t like the main character of a book, they mean they didn’t like the book. The main character has to be a friend? I don’t get that.

Bank describes the title character as someone who is “as bad as you’d be if you let yourself.”  Later in her essay she confesses that she is “willing to do almost anything to get you to read” Olive Kitteridge’s tale of this seemingly ordinary, ruthlessly cruel, strangely compelling small-town Maine woman.

Interestingly, Banks’ own hugely enjoyable novels The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing and The Wonder Spot are structured similarly to the Elizabeth Strout novel she raves about.  The novels are in the form of sort of interwoven short stories that revolve around a unifying character, and they’re full of witty observations and possibly mildly insane characters.

The ”You Must Read This” web archive is full of great essays like Banks’, in both text and audio format.  It’s really great to hear authors like Salman Rushdie, Brad Meltzer, and Ann Patchett describe works that have influenced them or otherwise blown them away as readers in this entertaining series.