Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine: Reese's Book Club: A Novel

Gail Honeyman’s charming, quirky, and resilient Eleanor Oliphant might just be one of my favorite characters I’ve met in a long time. Eleanor’s transformation from the woman she was in the beginning to the stronger, improved version of herself in the end was incredibly sad to read but also uplifting and inspiring at the same time. “I do exist, don’t I? It often feels as if I’m not here, that I’m a figment of my own imagination. There are days when I feel so lightly connected to the earth that the threads that tether me to the planet are gossamer thin, spun sugar. A strong gust of wind could dislodge me completely, and I’d lift off and blow away, like one of those seeds in a dandelion clock.” Eleanor Oliphant is painfully socially inept and completely not attuned to social decencies, an outcome of her horrendous childhood. She spends her weekdays working in the finance department of a graphic design company and avoiding her judgmental co-workers and her weekends drinking the liter or two of vodka she purchases from her local convenience store. Her life is regimented, structured, and very, very boring. The monotony of her life interrupted when she and the new IT guy, Raymond, help an elderly man who passed out on the sidewalk after work. These chain of events and a little bit of fate take Eleanor on an emotional journey she wasn’t planning on taking but one she has needed for a very long time. “My phone doesn’t ring often–it makes me jump when it does–and it’s usually people asking if I’ve been missold Payment Protection Insurance. I whisper I know where you live to them, and hang up the phone very, very gentle. When I started this book, I wasn’t quite sure what to make of Eleanor. She is blunt and judgmental. What comes out of her mouth is often unintentionally funny because she is just so emotionally and socially stunted. I laughed out loud quite a bit even though Eleanor wasn’t making jokes. Like, the time she went to get a bikini wax and the esthetician asked her if she wanted a Tiffani, Brazilian, or a Hollywood wax. Eleanor said, “Holly would, and so would Eleanor.” There is a naïveté and innocence to her character that is completely endearing and charming, though there were moments Honeyman was asking the reader to suspend disbelief a little too far. When I finished the novel, I realized that I came to love Eleanor along the way, all the crooked and unique parts of her character. A philosophical question: if a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? And if a woman who’s wholly alone occasionally talks to a pot plant, is she certifiable? I think that it is perfectly normal to talk to oneself occasionally. It’s not as though I’m expecting a reply. I’m fully aware that Polly is a houseplant. This book reminded me so much of an off-the-wall indie movie, complete with quirky characters and a great friendship storyline. I reach a point about a third of the way where I just loved where Honeyman was taking the story. The cast of characters in this novel was what made it that much more enjoyable. We meet Raymond, the new guy at work, who Eleanor describes as an unattractive overweight man who smokes and walks on the balls of his feet. What he lacks in conventional beauty, he makes up for in heart. He’s such a good guy who loves his mom and over time, comes to really care about Eleanor. Sammy, the older gentleman Eleanor and Raymond help, is vivacious, sprite, and so great! “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 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.” But the highlight of the novel was seeing Eleanor blossom and start to deal with her own pain. Despite the title, Eleanor Oliphant wasn’t completely fine but she will be. Uplifting and hopeful, this novel is one I will come back to, just so I can spend time with Eleanor just a little bit longer. Audiobook Comments: After reading this book, I picked it right back up again on audiobook. The audiobook is really great and I really loved the narrator’s Eleanor. Her dry, deadpan delivery was absolutely perfect! Highly recommended! * Thanks to the Penguin First Reads program and Penguin Random House Audio for providing me a review copy for review!

4.5 stars! “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.” Are you ok? How are you doing? What’s going on? What’s up? How are you? These are all questions you probably get asked in some capacity at least once a day. We… Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine. Just like me. Just like you. We are all fine. At least that’s what we are supposed to say, to hide the grief and trauma and other negative but basic human emotions that make others uncomfortable. Two lighters both work just fine. Soak one lighter in childhood trauma and grief, the spark goes out. All is lost. But all it takes is for the second lighter to offer some help, and slowly, the spark will reignite. Eleanor must learn how to open her mind, open her eyes, open her heart to see and feel the wonderful things this world has to offer as all she had ever known was its cruelties. This novel was very compelling. Eleanor is extremely quirky and over time you learn how she gained this persona. Touching on loneliness, grief, trauma and social norms, and mental health stigmas all in one, well put together, thought provoking novel, Gail Honeyman has an immersive way of telling a story. I felt like I was right there with Eleanor through all of her experiences as she hits rock bottom and discovers she cannot ignore her grief and trauma and she cannot move forward without some help. A tale of realism. I loved almost everything about this book. This book is slow-paced and I wasn’t sure what the point was until about half way through. For that reason- I feel as thought this may not be everyone’s cup of tea. I would recommend reading when you are in a good mental health space as there are some triggers. All in all, I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys literary fiction and who can connect quirky and broken characters. Cause aren’t we all just a little bit quirky and broken?

Eleanor, I miss you. It's only been a day since I finished the fantastic, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, and I feel as if I am missing something . . . or someone. I spent a mere five days or so, engrossed in this novel, but by the end of it, I felt as if I knew Eleanor so well. So intimately. And now that she's gone . . . now that the story is over . . . I feel a sense of loss. Because I love Eleanor. I love everything about her -- flaws, quirks, and all. Sure . . . she's a socially awkward, socially isolated, judgmental, 30-year-old curmudgeon. She says exactly what she thinks, whenever she wants to say it, to whomever she wants to say it, and is absolutely clueless when it comes to social graces. She's lonely, may or may not be on the autism spectrum and is, unfortunately, afflicted with various mental health issues. But amidst all that, Eleanor has a good heart. She just hasn't learned (yet) how to open it. The novel begins with an immediate introduction to Eleanor. She thinks her life is fine. She thinks SHE is fine. But is she really? Eleanor Oliphant is a beautifully written character study of a very troubled woman. The story is not plot-driven; neither is it exciting, nor pulse-pounding. But it is one that is exquisitely written, with phenomenal characterization. Gail Honeyman has created a truly unforgettable character in that of Eleanor . . . and also of Raymond, the kind, sweet man who helps Eleanor find her way. Eleanor's story is one that is quite dark. She is a victim of multiple forms of abuse. Her life consists of working five days a week and then spending her weekends alone, with bottles of vodka as her closest friends. At work, she deals with snide comments daily from her co-workers and then receives further verbal snipes during her weekly phone calls with Mummy. But even though the backdrop of the narrative is so tragic, Honeyman ensures that the reader is not dragged down into a pit of blackness. She infuses the story with warmth and the perfect amount of humor, by way of Eleanor's inner monologue and conversations with people. Eleanor is just so, SO funny. Albeit, the humorous moments are often at the expense of others, but what makes it okay . . . or, at least, okay enough . . . is that Eleanor doesn't have any idea that her thoughts and words are rude. She doesn't understand that she shouldn't say EVERYTHING that crosses her mind. And that lack of awareness just makes Eleanor all the more endearing. Eleanor Oliphant is a novel about finding yourself . . . about facing your fears, however big or small. Eleanor takes chances; she tries new things. She steps out of her comfort zone and ventures to new places, with new people. She forces herself to learn to feel ALL emotions, rather than stifle the majority of them, as she has done her entire life. And most importantly, she learns to love others . . . (and a cat!). . . and allows herself to be loved in return. All this because she realizes she wants more from her life. I think Eleanor may be one of the bravest characters I have ever encountered. And I believe we all can learn a lesson or two from her. I learned many. Oh, Eleanor . . . I am so happy to have met you.

I wish there were words for how much I loved this contemporary fiction/ chick-lit / Brit-lit novel. SUMMARY Eleanor Oliphant is the definition of 'socially awkward.' Think Sheldon from Big Bang Theory minus his little band of nerds and giant ego. Awkward!!! She is never sure if people are being sarcastic or serious. She gives a lot of unsolicited advice, thinking she is being helpful when she's really being obnoxious, then she mentally (and occasionally orally) notes what she perceives as others poor manners or stupidity in said person. She's hilarious without meaning to be. From the very beginning, the reader knows that things are not 100% right for Eleanor. She has serious "Mummy Issues" (love the British Speak, mummy issues sound so much more sophisticated than mommy issues!), her coworkers blatantly make fun of her, she has no friends, she relies on vodka to get her through the weekend and has these mysterious scars on her face which are significant enough to cause people to stare. On a very rare night out, she goes to a concert and completely falls for one of the musicians without even so much as exchanging a single word with him. Eleanor begins a journey of physical self improvement in order to prep herself to meet this musician. Her journey includes a hilarious visit to a waxing salon, a couple extremely uncomfortable "practice" social outings and a few lol worthy shopping trips. In addition to the outward improvements, Eleanor decides to open herself to new experiences so she will be ready when she meets her musician in person. Her newfound openness comes in handy when, after years of loneliness, she accidentally stumbles into two new unlikely friendships. Although there are many truly amusing parts in this story, it also has a very serious side, particularly when the reader learns of Eleanor's past and the origins of her scars. Author, Gail Honeyman, slowly doles out the details of Eleanor's heartbreaking backstory leaving the reader 100% on Team Eleanor. I, for one, was cheering her on and celebrating her growth as though she were my real life friend. WHAT I LOVED Since I gave this book 5 Stars, and I rarely ever do, clearly I loved EVERYTHING about it. But here are just a few specific things which I loved: The whole thing with Bobbie Brown makeup. She was soooooo clueless that she had no idea who Bobbie Brown is and at one point she 'questioned Ms Brown's work ethic' since Bobbie never seemed to be at her makeup counter. I LOVED Eleanor's observations on other people and how she often missed the point so significantly and then she thought everyone but her was crazy. Super entertaining. I loved how Eleanor just spoke her mind without concern for social convention. That was funny enough, but reading others reactions to her comment was the icing on the cake. Some people laughed and found her refreshing, others thought she was crazy or rude. The story itself was just so darn good!!! In my opinion, a good book in this genre is one which makes the reader laugh, think deeply, feel significant empathy for the characters and stays with the reader long after completing the story. For me, this book did that, and more. I was so sad to see it end. I miss her already. WHAT I DIDN'T LOVE This book got my 5 star rating which means that if there was something I didn't love about the book, the good outweighed the bad so heavily that I forgot anything I didn't like. OVERALL I LOVED THIS BOOK!!!!!!!!

What a great title. The central idea of the story is Eleanor’s growth from not fine at all to nearly fine—or close enough so the story ends well because we readers see that path out ahead of her. We leave Raymond, a perfect foil to Eleanor’s constricted persona, as a possibility, not a certainty. Nice … so un-cliché. Speaking of cliché, it would have been so easy to drench this story in it. Honeyman manages to get through it without cliché and in first person. Like the old story of the gifted athlete who was asked how he made love and responded, “Standing up … in a hammock.” Eleanor is an engaging character from the first page, pathetic in her many strictures at first. But she's so bright and funny without realizing it, we like her anyway. We watch the strictures strain and break as the story moves along. She’s bottled up in her preconceptions through the first half of the book. If Honeyman had pushed it just a little further, Eleanor would have become a repeating inanity. But at Sammy’s funeral, finally, she felt terrible for Sammy and his family … “Tears came, and the more I tried to fight them, the more they came.” To me, that initiated Eleanor’s growth. Also, I’m a sucker for good writing. How in-character of Eleanor to describe Donald Trump’s favorite filet o’ fish as a “square of indeterminate white fish, which was coated in bread crumbs and deep fried and then inserted between an overly sweet bread bun, accompanied, bizarrely, by a processed cheese slice, a limp lettuce leaf and some tangy white slime which bordered o obscenity.” Honeyman mines high dudgeon for great humor again and again. Writing in first person has become popular in the last decade, possibly in keeping with people's intense interest in their own inner workings. First person is difficult to do well because all the information the reader gets is from the protagonist. There is no way to vector in on a situation from multiple points of view. Therefore, stress on the protagonist. Honeyman turns the disadvantage on its head by writing such a compelling main character that we never get tired of seeing the world through her eyes. In the first half of the book, Eleanor manages to let the reader know just how distorted her view of the world is but succeeds in making the reader understand that she is oblivious. High art, indeed. Jaded a reader as I am, I have not had fiction force me to stay awake well beyond midnight in more than a year. I finished Eleanor at 2:30 am.

Eleanor is a fascinating character. She socially awkward, opinionated, judgmental and lonely. Meeting Raymond and Sammy opens her eyes a bit to the world around her and the possibility that life can be pleasant if given a chance. Seeing Johnnie and creating her future with him in her mind gives her a focus. This leads to trying new things, stepping out of her comfort zone as well as the very bad days. But she isn’t so lonely anymore, she has a friend and it’s that friend I truly believe saved her. I won’t spoil anything but I really do see a bright future for Eleanor with her mental health, friends and maybe even someone special.

I was engaged the entire time by Eleanor Oliphant and her countless endearing moments! A brilliant yet oblivious/ innocent survivor story. Great read!

This book has over 45, 000 reviews at Amazon and over 70,000 at Goodreads. Reading many of those reviews left me wondering why so many readers had such intense feelings about the novel, both good and bad. While I thought it was a well-written story that moved along at a good pace, with an interesting protagonist, it was really nothing mind-blowing. Some reviewers found it funny, while others were offended anyone would think it was funny. I thought it had some funny incidents, but not that many. Personally, I would not file it under “humorous fiction”, but I also would not file in under “tragic fiction”. It was simply a story of a woman who was finally dealing with terrible childhood trauma, as well as learning how to relate to others in a more empathetic way. I had no problem believing Eleanor O. could finally overcome her nightmarish childhood in her 30s. By the age of 30, or in their 30s, is when many, many individuals finally resolve childhood issues and move forward in their adult lives. Eleanor obviously has been thinking of her issues consciously or subconsciously her entire life. What I found difficult to believe was the bone breaking abusive boyfriend part. Was that real? Did he actually exist? Guilt from her childhood certainly could have left her believing she deserved abuse, but it seemed doubtful she ever would have formed such a close relationship to begin with. If it started off as a fantasy and turned into a nightmare, why would she then still be trying to create a fantasy relationship in her 30s? She obviously suffered from childhood trauma, but she was not stupid. I would go back and read about the bad boyfriend again, except I did not find the novel that interesting to reread any parts. The major twist at the end of the story I liked because I did not guess it, and it explained why something was happening that should not have been happening. Kudos to Eleanor O. for going forward in life and not being a lifetime victim, who needed trigger warnings, for the rest of her days. Congratulations to author Gail Honeyman for such a successful first novel. I do think the book is overrated and has been over analyzed, but it still was an interesting enough read to finish in two days. Is Elinor O. a fictional character who will never be forgotten? For me, no. I will probably only remember this novel because it was suggesting it was actually a bad thing to spend the weekend without talking to one other person, after spending the week working in an office filled with people. Is that supposed to be funny? If not, obviously Gail Honeyman doesn't have an introverted bone in her body, or she has never had an office job. :)