Jane Anderson, a playwright, screenwriter and part-time Nicasio resident for about two decades, read the Pulitzer prize-winning book Olive Kitteridge years ago for pleasure. She was drawn into the often-strained relationship between the cantankerous Olive and her optimistic husband, Henry, because it reminded her of her own parents’ marriage. “My mom always adored my dad, but she was terrible to him sometimes,” said Ms. Anderson, an Emmy award winner who wrote the screenplay for the recently aired H.B.O. mini series based on the book. Olive and Henry’s relationship is strained by Olive’s abrasive demeanor and unnamed mental illness. Yet that burden also ties into a sense of pride for the title character, who refuses all offers of counseling. “She learned to wear her depression as a badge of honor. She feels that makes you more intelligent,” Ms. Anderson said. The four-part series, which Ms. Anderson will discuss at Point Reyes Books with Frances McDormand (the star and director of the show), spans a few decades of Olive’s later life, documenting her familial and psychological struggles. For Ms. Anderson, the mini series allows for a deep exploration of the title character but she undergoes no dramatic transformation. She becomes a bit more loving toward the end, but her essential nature remains the same. Forcing her to undergo a deep introspection “would have been untrue. It would have turned it into an ordinary piece of television,” she said. (Such self-reflection might have also been a little too Northern California for Olive, a hardened New Englander.) “The question that the book begs is, if you’ve been born a certain way and estimated to be a certain kind of judgmental depressed person, is there hope? Even if you don’t go through a gigantic transformation? There is hope, if you decide to let go of your old story,” she said. Point Reyes Books will host a sold-out discussion with Ms. Anderson and Ms. McDormand, a benefit for KWMR, on Saturday, Dec. 27 at the West Marin School Gymnasium.