Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

Synopsis:

No one’s ever told Eleanor that life should be better than fine.

Meet Eleanor Oliphant: She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. 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.

But everything changes when Eleanor 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 sidewalk, the three become the kinds of friends who rescue one another from the lives of isolation they have each been living. And it is Raymond’s big heart that will ultimately help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one.

Soon to be a major motion picture produced by Reese Witherspoon, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is the smart, warm, and uplifting story of an out-of-the-ordinary heroine whose deadpan weirdness and unconscious wit make for an irresistible journey as she realizes. . .

The only way to survive is to open your heart.

____

“If someone asks you how you are, you are meant to say FINE. You are not meant to say that you cried yourself to sleep last night because you hadn't spoken to another person for two consecutive days. FINE is what you say.”

Oh...where do I start about this book? It's been a while since a novel tugged at my heartstrings, and oh my goodness, this novel made me cry so much that I had to take a breather to calm down. 

This was by no means the best story I've ever read, but it was beautifully written, and the structure was brilliant. The book has 3 parts—Good Days, Bad Days, and Better Days. It started off in an office setting where we see a 30-year-old woman going about her normal life. She works in a graphic design company, doing her task as efficiently as possible, and she likes to keep to herself. Then we see her interacting with other people, and we're introduced slowly to her quaint little habits and get a peek at her inner monologue. The storytelling is straightforward, but at the same time, full of curiosity because not everything was laid out.

“Sometimes you simply needed someone kind to sit with you while you dealt with things.”

As the story progressed, I got more and more attached to Eleanor, and I wanted to know more about her life. What happened to her to make her the way she is? What trauma did she experience in the past that made her scared of so many things? What or who hurt her so much to make her close herself off to the outside world? Questions like these bloomed inside my mind, which made me turn the pages to figure it out. 

The thing about Eleanor Oliphant is that it is written in a way that makes you feel everything in a much bigger scope. It tackles loneliness, self-alienation, delusion, and depression with an intensity that made me want to be there for Eleanor. I cried so much reading this book. I cried as if I were there with Eleanor, as she navigated a life of extreme isolation.

“I simply didn't know how to make things better. I could not solve the puzzle of me.”

This book made me thankful for the friends and family I have. It gave me a new appreciation of my life. It showed me a new perspective I didn't once consider. People can sometimes be exhausting, but you really cannot go through life without dealing with them. And having a good support system is vital.

I can't say that this was a perfect read, but this book shifted something in me and that's good enough for me to rate it with the highest stars. I enjoyed this one so much. Oh Eleanor, you are loved!

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐