#7 Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine

I first heard about this book last year when it was recommended to me after I had just finished the Harry Potter series. Finally, just over a year later I bought the book and finished reading it on Monday morning. As always, I made assumptions about what I was getting myself into. Being the Costa Book Awards Winner of 2017 and the Sunday Times best seller, I was expecting greatness.

At a first glance, Eleanor is a weird woman. She has no understanding of social situations and keeps to her routine; going to work Monday to Friday, eating pesto pasta on weeknights, having pizza with Glen’s vodka on the weekends plus a weekly phone call from her Mummy on Wednesdays. She seems to lead a normal, lonely life. But there is a lot about Eleanor’s childhood that has shaped her personality, adding a darkened thread into the narrative.

Two things dramatically happen to Eleanor in a short period of time: 1- She accidentally makes a friend and 2- She decides who the love of her life is going to be. Now girls always joke about being able to track down boys through social media (lets be honest ladies, we’ve all had a search once or twice), but Eleanor takes it to the next level and makes it her project to track down this man.

This book is mixed with drops of humour, a teaspoon of reflection and a cup of a pained past. This makes for a read that emphasises the wonderful power that an act of kindness can have, no matter how small it may be. Through no fault of our own, this world judges’ people in a miniscule amount of time on first impressions. But really, we have no idea what is going on in someone’s life and how much a text or a smile in the street could mean to them. That’s what I took from this book, hence why I was pretty much smiling to myself throughout.

When I sat down to write this review at 13:15, I realised that I hadn’t fallen in love with this book. I know, gasp shock horror.Meaning that I was a wee bit stumped at what to do, as all my reviews possess so much enthusiasm. Therefore, I began to write about how it had fallen short of its reputation and that it wasn’t a gripping page turner etc. etc.… It is now 23:55 and I realised that this is a very special book.

Gail Honeyman writes and demonstrates through Miss Oliphant how important the smaller details of life can be. As clichéd as it may sound, the majority of us are privileged to have unconditional love from our family or someone to love or even a friend to turn to. We should never take that for granted.

This all being said, Honeyman says, and I quote: “each reader and each reading experience is different, and I’m happy to leave it to the readers to decide what, and if anything, to take from it…”

Hx

For Bex and Lulu

xox