This book tells a story of a lonely woman, haunted by the shadow of her past whose life changes when a certain man shows up in her life. This change is a path she knows she needed to take, but was afraid of.
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Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine - Gail Honeyman
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Summary
Eleanor Oliphant is a simple woman who lives her life in a stereotype. Work from Monday to Friday, buy frozen pizza from Tesco and two bottles of vodka, get through the weekend drunk and asleep until Monday... repeat.
All of that changes though one day, randomly, unprompted. Eleanor Oliphant falls in love.
Knowing that the person she falls for is a musician walking in a higher society, she sets her mind to become worthy of him - changing herself.
But going through all those changes means talking to people, let them assist you and enter they lives.
Suddenly, Eleanor Oliphant finds herself surrounded by people who are nice to her, despite her scarred face and even call her a place!
For the first time in her life, Eleanor find herself... belonging and being liked.
That is not the only change that happens. All of those new things bring out to the light her past... and the fire. Eleanor now has to face herself, her mother and the fire that eats her alive.
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About the author
Quoting from the internet: "Gail Honeyman wrote her debut novel, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, while working a full-time job, and it was shortlisted for the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize as a work in progress. Reese Witherspoon has optioned it for film. Gail lives in Glasgow."
This is my first book by Gail Honeyman. I snatched in in 2020 when I was in London, and found this absolutely lovely second hand book. It was only £1, which is ridiculous and I loved it so so much the first time I read it.
Unfortunately, I never stumbled upon any other books by this author and I am not even sure if she does have more novels... but I would definitely read more from Gail Honeyman.
There is a Q&A with Gail at the end of the book, and one question particularly stayed with me. Quoting from the book:
"What was your inspiration for Eleanor Oliphant - both the novel and the character?
The novel came from the character. A few years ago, I read a newspaper article about loneliness. It included an interview with a young professional woman, living in a big city, who said that she'd often leave work on Friday afternoon and not speak to another human being until she returned on Monday Morning. When loneliness is discussed in the media, it's usually in the context of older people, so I was very struck by this. I started to think about how difficult it can be, at any age, to forge meaningful connections and to imagine various scenarios in which a young woman could find herself living in those circumstances. From there, slowly, the story and the character of Eleanor Oliphant began to emerge."
So we know already, this book will be about fining a ray of happiness in a deep deep sadness. And well enough, Gail Honeyman delivered a heartbreaking story, that left me smiling like an idiot.
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Technical side
Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers
Year: 2017
ISBN: 978-0-00-817214-5
Pages: 383
Narrator: Eleanor Oliphant, the main character
Bought: ???
Read: ???, 20. 07. 2024
Cover of this books is extremely clever - a house made of burned matches is almost a pun to the story, and I especially love that the matches are "3D", so you can feel them coming out of the book and run your fingers around their curves.
This book is divided into 3 parts, dividing the story into "Good Days", "Bad Days" and "Better Days". Each of 41 chapters starts on the right side of the book which made me... weirdly pleased and happy for some weird reason.
It doesn't use any special divider between scenes or parts of chapters.
For quotation marks/speech, the book uses ‘…’ which I hate with passion.
The books contains Q&A with the author, as well as 11 "Reading group questions".
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Rating
This is my second time reading Eleanor Oliphant. When I picked the book up again, I knew only one thing - I love this book. But sadly, I did not remember anything about it after 4 years.
This time around, I appreciated it even more. The way the story went, the unlikable character of Eleanor which you grow to love, the people she meets grown on you just as much as on Eleanor and in the end... even though the story has a great ending, you want more.
This book is sarcastic, uses pun, can get awkward... all things I love.
Also, maturing is realizing that they do not need to fall in love. However, the romantic in me thinks it still is a possible outcome. 😉
All in all I wholeheartedly RECOMMEND this book, it is a must read and it gets a place on my "showing off" bookshelf.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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Colorful tabs
I... jumped on the wave of "booktok girlies" and I went and bought colorful pens and colorful tabs to highlight some important information, descriptions, funny moments, quotes and sad parts, or parts that I loved.
I got into it so hard, I started doing it with all the books I am reading.
At first it was "scary". I was taught to NEVER write in my books. But they are my books and I want to go through the pages and see what stuck with me or what I considered important. Have it as a bookmark so I can access it anytime I pick the book up and get thrown right back into it.
Because there is nothing sadder about books than not remembering what you loved about it.
So let me pick a few tabs and write them down, and also write down the meaning of some words I learned.
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Quotes:
Page 30:I don't often look in the mirror, as a rule. [...] I see far too much of Mummy's face there.
Page 73:
Human mating rituals are unbelievably tedious to observe.
Page 132:
Life is all about taking decisive action, darling. Whatever you want to do, do it - whatever you want to take, grab it. Whatever you want to bring t an end, END IT. And live with the consequences.
Page 235:
Time only blunts the pain of loss. It doesn't erase it.
Page 311:
Obscenity is the distinguishing hallmark of a sadly limited vocabulary.
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Vocabulary:
- Morituri te salutant - "we [those] who are about to die salute you"
- gawping - the action of asking or begging for something earnestly or humbly
- erred - be mistaken or incorrect; make a mistake
- periwinkles - small edible whelk or sea snail (I expected a snowflake or something)
- with aplomb - self-confidence or assurance, especially when in a demanding situation
- sea holly -
- agapanthus -
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