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A review by reneedecoskey
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
5.0
This is one of the best books I've read this year, and probably a new addition to my "favorite books of all time" list.
Eleanor Oliphant is a woman in her early 30s and her life is completely fine. She lives alone, has no friends, really, and finds other humans to be exasperating. When she was in college, she'd been in a relationship with a man named Declan, but he'd abused her in numerous ways and she's been on her own ever since then -- save for those she encounters at work and her weekly Wednesday evening phone call with her mother. Eleanor's relationship with her mother is strained at best. We know that after her mother did something terrible, Eleanor grew up in foster care, always trying to make herself small so as not to bother anyone. But her mother is certainly not very nice to her, and it's a thing that Eleanor is both accustomed to and hurt by.
When she wins tickets to see a local band perform, she goes, and she falls in love with the lead singer, Johnny Lomand. This is when she decides that he is the man of her dreams and that they will certainly be falling in love and spending their lives together. She just has to give fate a little boost.
She sets about modernizing her life (getting a makeover, internet and a computer, and current clothes, etc.). In an attempt to try to learn more about what people do when they're "out," she agrees to have lunch with Raymond Gibbons, an IT worker from her office who helps her fix her computer. Thought most people in her office talk about how strange she is and make fun of her, Raymond isn't like that. He seems amused by Eleanor's eccentricities. She finds him to be a bit of a disaster -- a messy beard, messy hair, sloppy clothes, and always wearing tennis shoes.
As they're walking back to the office from their lunch, they see a man fall over in the street. They later learn that his name is Sammy, and they save him. Eleanor and Raymond's friendship continues to grow as Raymond convinces her to come visit Sammy in the hospital, and then to attend his son's party, to which they were invited for saving his father.
Pretty soon, Eleanor and Raymond could be called actual friends. She goes with him to meet his mother. He helps her to be more a part of society. But he's still secondary to her crush on the musician.
SPOILERS AHEAD! Skip to the bottom to read reactions and thoughts
When Eleanor finally decides it's time to make her move with the musician, it doesn't go well. He doesn't fall in love with her as she expects. To make matters worse, Raymond seems to have been involving himself with Laura, Sammy's daughter who is beautiful. The book never really comes out and says it, but I think what Eleanor feels there is a little bit of jealousy and a little bit of fear that her one and only friend will be taken away from her.
And when that terrible night happens when the musician, Johnny, doesn't fall in love with her, she goes home and drinks. And drinks some more. And drinks even more than that. Eventually, when she doesn't turn up for work, Raymond comes to her house looking for her. He finds her house in disarray and her among it, with alcohol poisoning.
He helps her and sits with her while she dries out and recovers, but it becomes clear that something else is at the root of this problem.
With minimal knowledge of Eleanor's background and good search skills, Raymond starts to learn a bit on his own about what happened to Eleanor, at the same time that she finally agrees to go to therapy while taking some short-term disability from work.
As Eleanor begins to unravel and begin talking about the truth with regards to what happened the night of the fire (which is how she got the scars on her face), and what role her mother played and who Marianne was, she starts to grow tremendously as a person. While there are still the quirks of her personality present, she's not quite as rigid and guarded. And Raymond is right there to help her through the whole thing.
When she finally gets so far, they're out celebrating her finally being able to talk about Marianne and her mother. She's printed a few articles without reading beyond the headlines, and she wants Raymond to read them with her, knowing that he already has knowledge of what happened from his own searches. After reading the articles, she finally comes around to admitting that she'd been pretending her mother was alive (an interesting twist I didn't see coming) and having those conversations with her for years as a way to punish herself for what had happened that night -- the night her mother lit the house on fire and died, along with Eleanor's 4 year old sister Marianne. Eleanor had tried to save her, but she couldn't. Her mother lit the fire to try to kill them.
I loved that this had a realistic and uplifting outcome for Eleanor. I also really loved that the author didn't choose to make Eleanor and Raymond fall in love, although she left it as a definite possibility. While it was clear that they both cared for each other quite a lot, a big part of me also just really wanted to see Eleanor have a true friend before she focused on anything else, and I think that she had that with Raymond.
END SPOILERS
This book was delightful. It was at times very funny and at other times very sad. I laughed and cried. It has a lot to say about the power of loneliness and what it can do to a person, as well as how true friendship can make the world a more bearable and less lonely place when one only lets those friends in. I also thought that the book's handling of mental health issues, addiction, and depression were all very good. I don't feel like it's very often that we see fiction books that deal with psychological issues like that at the root of the story, but this one did and did so quite well.
Eleanor Oliphant is a woman in her early 30s and her life is completely fine. She lives alone, has no friends, really, and finds other humans to be exasperating. When she was in college, she'd been in a relationship with a man named Declan, but he'd abused her in numerous ways and she's been on her own ever since then -- save for those she encounters at work and her weekly Wednesday evening phone call with her mother. Eleanor's relationship with her mother is strained at best. We know that after her mother did something terrible, Eleanor grew up in foster care, always trying to make herself small so as not to bother anyone. But her mother is certainly not very nice to her, and it's a thing that Eleanor is both accustomed to and hurt by.
When she wins tickets to see a local band perform, she goes, and she falls in love with the lead singer, Johnny Lomand. This is when she decides that he is the man of her dreams and that they will certainly be falling in love and spending their lives together. She just has to give fate a little boost.
She sets about modernizing her life (getting a makeover, internet and a computer, and current clothes, etc.). In an attempt to try to learn more about what people do when they're "out," she agrees to have lunch with Raymond Gibbons, an IT worker from her office who helps her fix her computer. Thought most people in her office talk about how strange she is and make fun of her, Raymond isn't like that. He seems amused by Eleanor's eccentricities. She finds him to be a bit of a disaster -- a messy beard, messy hair, sloppy clothes, and always wearing tennis shoes.
As they're walking back to the office from their lunch, they see a man fall over in the street. They later learn that his name is Sammy, and they save him. Eleanor and Raymond's friendship continues to grow as Raymond convinces her to come visit Sammy in the hospital, and then to attend his son's party, to which they were invited for saving his father.
Pretty soon, Eleanor and Raymond could be called actual friends. She goes with him to meet his mother. He helps her to be more a part of society. But he's still secondary to her crush on the musician.
SPOILERS AHEAD! Skip to the bottom to read reactions and thoughts
When Eleanor finally decides it's time to make her move with the musician, it doesn't go well. He doesn't fall in love with her as she expects. To make matters worse, Raymond seems to have been involving himself with Laura, Sammy's daughter who is beautiful. The book never really comes out and says it, but I think what Eleanor feels there is a little bit of jealousy and a little bit of fear that her one and only friend will be taken away from her.
And when that terrible night happens when the musician, Johnny, doesn't fall in love with her, she goes home and drinks. And drinks some more. And drinks even more than that. Eventually, when she doesn't turn up for work, Raymond comes to her house looking for her. He finds her house in disarray and her among it, with alcohol poisoning.
He helps her and sits with her while she dries out and recovers, but it becomes clear that something else is at the root of this problem.
With minimal knowledge of Eleanor's background and good search skills, Raymond starts to learn a bit on his own about what happened to Eleanor, at the same time that she finally agrees to go to therapy while taking some short-term disability from work.
As Eleanor begins to unravel and begin talking about the truth with regards to what happened the night of the fire (which is how she got the scars on her face), and what role her mother played and who Marianne was, she starts to grow tremendously as a person. While there are still the quirks of her personality present, she's not quite as rigid and guarded. And Raymond is right there to help her through the whole thing.
When she finally gets so far, they're out celebrating her finally being able to talk about Marianne and her mother. She's printed a few articles without reading beyond the headlines, and she wants Raymond to read them with her, knowing that he already has knowledge of what happened from his own searches. After reading the articles, she finally comes around to admitting that she'd been pretending her mother was alive (an interesting twist I didn't see coming) and having those conversations with her for years as a way to punish herself for what had happened that night -- the night her mother lit the house on fire and died, along with Eleanor's 4 year old sister Marianne. Eleanor had tried to save her, but she couldn't. Her mother lit the fire to try to kill them.
I loved that this had a realistic and uplifting outcome for Eleanor. I also really loved that the author didn't choose to make Eleanor and Raymond fall in love, although she left it as a definite possibility. While it was clear that they both cared for each other quite a lot, a big part of me also just really wanted to see Eleanor have a true friend before she focused on anything else, and I think that she had that with Raymond.
END SPOILERS
This book was delightful. It was at times very funny and at other times very sad. I laughed and cried. It has a lot to say about the power of loneliness and what it can do to a person, as well as how true friendship can make the world a more bearable and less lonely place when one only lets those friends in. I also thought that the book's handling of mental health issues, addiction, and depression were all very good. I don't feel like it's very often that we see fiction books that deal with psychological issues like that at the root of the story, but this one did and did so quite well.