TITLE: ELEANOR OLIPHANT IS COMPLETELY FINE
AUTHOR: GAIL HONEYMAN
GENRE: CONTEMPORARY FICTION
GOODREADS SYNOPSIS
Smart, warm, uplifting, the 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 her heart
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. All this means that Eleanor has become a creature of habit (to say the least) and a bit of a loner.
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.
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is the story of a quirky yet lonely woman whose social misunderstandings and deeply ingrained routines could be changed forever—if she can bear to confront the secrets she has avoided all her life. But if she does, she’ll learn that she, too, is capable of finding friendship—and even love—after all.
MY REVIEW
“Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine” was one such a book that had been on my wishlist ever since. Finally, in July I bought it and read. “What I had been doing all these months?” The first thing came to my head. Because from the starting itself the book has taken me along with it. I would say, I got such a vibe only from my most favourite book “A Thousand Splendid Suns”. After 2 years, “Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine” has beaten that record.
So far you must have known, how much I adore this book. Let’s talk about 3 things: plot/story, character and writing.
The story takes you through the life of Eleanor Oliphant, an ordinary girl who follows a strict daily routine and seems like a sociopath. An accidental friendship happens in her life with a guy from her office Raymond Gibbons.
Friendship with Raymond helps Eleanor to make a small crack on her outer shell she has built over time and slowly that shell shatters to reveal the truth of her life. The plot is interesting, you can expect the unexpected.
With characters, there are a few prominent ones in the book. Each character has been crafted in such a way that no one seems irrelevant. None of the characters seems gaudy or unrealistic. Eleanor is the protagonist, and she drives the story. At times you would feel that you know Eleanor, sometimes you would feel you are Eleanor. Because many such Eleanor is living with us, inside us. At many points I could relate to her, I could feel her, I could know beforehand what she will do next. Eleanor is real and raw, like me and like you. Maybe that made her story a bestseller.
In our life, we always need a sidekick, to push us to move forward when we stuck in some sticky path. Raymond Gibbons has been Eleanor’s sidekick. A friend should be like him, who gives her support when she needs it, who cares for her when she shatters, who gives personal space when she wants it.
The story narrates from the perspective of Eleanor, so it has been witty, realistic and painful. The author has keenly observed how a lonely person would be like; she has put great care even to the intricate detailing like how Eleanor should behave, her belongings, how she reacts when an uncomfortable thing happens to her life. Through this book, Gail Honeyman has reached my heart. She goes to be on my auto-buy list after Khaled Hosseini and Fredrik Backman. The language used is lucid, sometimes I felt a sarcasm in it, which I loved the most.
So coming to the part where the heart of this book lies, that is the socially relevant issue it talks about, depression. Depression has been one such mental illness often lurks behind our vision. We could not figure out what it is like to be depressed. Many people suffer from depression because of the bad impact of their childhood, current situations, etc. If let depression go unseen, it might cause great destructions in one’s life. So Eleanor is one such girl around us who suffer from depression, which leads her to great miseries in life.
We always ready to judge people from outside, never bother about what’s happening inside their head or life. No person has got a perfect life because perfect is just an illusion. We often try to discover that perfection, don’t we? But it is nowhere to be found. If you are ready to accept this fact of life, trust me, most of your problems could be solved. I have come across people who always try to be flawless, how can you be flawless? When the universe we are existing itself a flawed one.
I highly highly recommend this book to everyone. Please do read, it worth your time and money.
MY RATING
5 Star / 5 Star
