Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine
Author: Gail Honeyman
Published by: Faber & Faber
Pages 323
Format Paperback
My Rating ★★★★★
Eleanor Oliphant leads a simple life.
She wears the same clothes to work every day, eats the same meal deal for lunch every day and buys the same two bottles of vodka to drink every weekend.
Eleanor Oliphant is happy.
Nothing is missing from her carefully timetabled existence. Except, sometimes, everything…
My thoughts:
This is a book about Eleanor Oliphant; one of the most fascinating, complex, amusing and brave characters I’ve come across in a while. She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. Seemingly nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy.
Eleanor lives a pretty secluded life due to her crippling self esteem and anxiety issues, but she is very likeable and her character certainly grew on me the more I read. She has had a scarred childhood, although we don’t learn exactly what happened until much later in the story. She wears the evidence on her face, and this contributes to her severe lack of confidence, particularly in making friends or being able to enjoy a social life. She remembers little from her childhood, and the only thing she really knows for sure is that she was burned in a fire.
As readers delve a little deeper, it soon starts to emerge that things in Eleanor’s life are far from fine. Everything changes for Eleanor when she meets Raymond, the bumbling, and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office. When she and Raymond together save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen on the pavement, the three become the kinds of friends who rescue one another from the lives of isolation they have each been living.
It is not what I would describe as a romantic book and I can’t complain. There are hints that the central relationship will eventually develop into romance, but this is really a book that focuses on Eleanor.
However, it is Raymond’s big heart that will ultimately help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one. With Raymond’s help and encouragement, she is eventually able to begin the difficult task of taking back control of her own life.
In all honesty, I was very pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine! In my opinion, it is one of those really rare books that is able to combine a perfect blend of emotions throughout the story. It is a touching, funny, unpredictable and extremely thought-provoking tale, all narrated from Eleanor’s unusual perspective. She is totally unique, and while sometimes her behaviour can be off-putting, she is so fascinating; I began to feel quite worried about her, and protective of her in certain awkward situations involving other characters.
I thought the ending was just perfect, and neatly tied things up, whilst also allowing enough freedom to allow readers to reflect and marvel at Eleanor and the strength she has shown whilst dealing with so much all by herself. Despite feeling deeply saddened by the burdens Eleanor has carried since childhood, along with how she coped with them until this point in her life, I was so glad that Gail Honeyman chose to give her an ending with hope, new friendship, and potentially lots of happiness still to come in the future.
I loved this book and I really don’t think I’ll be forgetting Eleanor or her story anytime soon.
Overall reaction:
Published by: Faber & Faber
Pages 323
Format Paperback
My Rating ★★★★★
Eleanor Oliphant leads a simple life.
She wears the same clothes to work every day, eats the same meal deal for lunch every day and buys the same two bottles of vodka to drink every weekend.
Eleanor Oliphant is happy.
Nothing is missing from her carefully timetabled existence. Except, sometimes, everything…
My thoughts:
This is a book about Eleanor Oliphant; one of the most fascinating, complex, amusing and brave characters I’ve come across in a while. She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. Seemingly nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy.
Eleanor lives a pretty secluded life due to her crippling self esteem and anxiety issues, but she is very likeable and her character certainly grew on me the more I read. She has had a scarred childhood, although we don’t learn exactly what happened until much later in the story. She wears the evidence on her face, and this contributes to her severe lack of confidence, particularly in making friends or being able to enjoy a social life. She remembers little from her childhood, and the only thing she really knows for sure is that she was burned in a fire.
As readers delve a little deeper, it soon starts to emerge that things in Eleanor’s life are far from fine. Everything changes for Eleanor when she meets Raymond, the bumbling, and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office. When she and Raymond together save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen on the pavement, the three become the kinds of friends who rescue one another from the lives of isolation they have each been living.
It is not what I would describe as a romantic book and I can’t complain. There are hints that the central relationship will eventually develop into romance, but this is really a book that focuses on Eleanor.
However, it is Raymond’s big heart that will ultimately help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one. With Raymond’s help and encouragement, she is eventually able to begin the difficult task of taking back control of her own life.
In all honesty, I was very pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine! In my opinion, it is one of those really rare books that is able to combine a perfect blend of emotions throughout the story. It is a touching, funny, unpredictable and extremely thought-provoking tale, all narrated from Eleanor’s unusual perspective. She is totally unique, and while sometimes her behaviour can be off-putting, she is so fascinating; I began to feel quite worried about her, and protective of her in certain awkward situations involving other characters.
I thought the ending was just perfect, and neatly tied things up, whilst also allowing enough freedom to allow readers to reflect and marvel at Eleanor and the strength she has shown whilst dealing with so much all by herself. Despite feeling deeply saddened by the burdens Eleanor has carried since childhood, along with how she coped with them until this point in her life, I was so glad that Gail Honeyman chose to give her an ending with hope, new friendship, and potentially lots of happiness still to come in the future.
I loved this book and I really don’t think I’ll be forgetting Eleanor or her story anytime soon.
Overall reaction:
