Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine

Eleanor Oliphant, I need to apologize. When I initially tried to read you back in January 2018, I decided you weren't for me and tossed you aside. What was I thinking?! Forgive me. I'm glad I decided to give you another go, in digital audio format this time. 

I can't remember why I didn't mesh with this book three years ago, but the issues I had clearly fall into the 'It's me, not you' category. Like Ove, Auggie and Cyril Avery***, Eleanor is now part of the elite cast of characters who I will continue to think about for years to come.

Eleanor is a unique character. She's socially awkward, damaged, doesn't always filter what she says, and doesn't 'get' contemporary slang or references. She sticks to her strict routine as if her life depended on it and is merely existing through life. The few people around her view her as odd, but what they don't realize is that she has a good heart and desperately struggles with loneliness and depression. 

“These days, loneliness is the new cancer—a shameful, embarrassing thing, brought upon yourself in some obscure way. A fearful, incurable thing, so horrifying that you dare not mention it; other people don’t want to hear the word spoken aloud for fear that they might too be afflicted, or that it might tempt fate into visiting a similar horror upon them.”

 

“I have been waiting for death all my life. I do not mean that I actively wish to die, just that I do not really want to be alive.”

 I was unprepared for this book. For Eleanor and her past. As the story progresses, readers are given hints about her family life, often through comments nonchalantly made by Eleanor herself. These tidbits weave darker elements into the story that transform how readers will view Eleanor. 

“There are scars on my heart, just as thick, as disfiguring as those on my face. I know they’re there. I hope some undamaged tissue remains, a patch through which love can come in and flow out. I hope.”

This book deals with emotionally traumatic issues and Eleanor's past is haunting for the reader. The building need for clarity about what happened to her kept me listening well past my bedtime. Your heart cannot help but go out to Eleanor. Her loneliness is palpable and will be relatable for many and her struggles and how she views the world will endear her to readers. That said, I was ever so grateful for the bits of humour Honeyman added to lighten things up a bit. 

“When the silence and the aloneness press down and around me, crushing me, carving through me like ice, I need to speak aloud sometimes, if only for proof of life.”

This remarkable debut novel by Gaily Honeyman balances emotional elements with snippets of humour and a quirky main character who readers won't soon forget. This is a story about self-discovery, the importance of belonging and letting go of the past. Heartbreaking, occasionally humourous and powerfully honest, I'm so glad I didn't give up on Eleanor.

“In the end, what matters is this: I survived.”

*** Ove is from A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman, Auggie is from Wonder by R.J Palacio and Cyril Avery is from The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne.

My Rating: 4.5 stars

Author: Gail Honeyman

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Type and Source: eAudio from public library

Run Time: 11 hours, 2 minutes

Narrator: Cathleen McCarron

Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing

First Published: 2017

Opening Line: When people ask me what I do -- taxi drivers, 

hairdressers -- I tell them I work in an office.

Book Description from GoodReads: Eleanor Oliphant is a bit of an odd ball. She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. That, combined with her unusual appearance (scarred cheek, sometime wearer of an eczema glove), means that Eleanor has become a bit of a loner – or ‘self-contained entity’ as she calls it. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life and phone chats with ‘Mummy’ (in prison for crimes unknown).

But everything changes when Eleanor falls for the local Hipster-band frontman, Johnnie Rivers. As Eleanor prepares herself for her inevitable union with the object of her desire (appropriate attire, new laptop for Instagram stalking), she inadvertently befriends the new guy from her office, Raymond.

As Eleanor navigates the waters of obsessive love and her long-distance relationship with ‘Mummy’, she realises she can only overcome the horrors of her past if she accepts a little help from Raymond…

Filled with unabashed wit, Eleanor Oliphant follows its quirky and troubled female narrator as she realises that the only way to survive her current state of mind is to open her heart to friendship.