A Year of Reading: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman, reviewed by Katherine Roberts
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| Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman |
"3 million copies sold" boasts the cover of this book, which makes me wonder why I've taken so long to read it, considering it was first published in 2017 and comes with a glowing collection of positive reviews. Well, I confess I have come across a few of those reviews over the years, and for some unknown reason formed the opinion that it's a Young Adult (YA) issues title, which as a fantasy/historical fan I don't normally enjoy. That's partly why I am doing this year of reading at Authors Electric, allowing different types of books to cross my path and sampling authors and genres more widely than I used to, in the hope I'll discover a new author and/or genre to enjoy.
Within a few pages, I was rooting for the heroine. Eleanor Oliphant (not her real name - she has grown up in care) has an office job in accounts that she seems to be good at, lives alone in a small flat, runs her life to a strict routine and rarely speaks to people outside of work. Authors often don't even have the office job, so it was easy enough to identify with her lonely existence, something that can be especially challenging over a bank holiday weekend like this one, when everyone else seems to be playing at happy families. But Eleanor also has her personal demons to deal with and, while not of the fantasy kind, these demons are just as frightening. She manages them with the help of two bottles of vodka every Friday, plus occasionally a little (or a lot) more when needed.
The trigger for change comes when Eleanor and a work colleague (Raymond, a likeable nerd from IT) witness an old man fall in the street and decide to help. The old man - Sammy - turns out to have an extended loving family, who welcome Eleanor and Raymond into their clan. Although Sammy eventually "checks out" (Eleanor's words) at a crematorium, their relationship continues in a touchingly platonic way while our heroine pursues a fantasy romance with a musician she has fallen in love with from afar. Cue an Eleanor-style major makeover. But when her fantasy fails to live up to expectations, it is Raymond who steps in to save Eleanor from herself.
The truth of the heroine's troubled past is revealed only towards the end of the book, when Eleanor is persuaded to undergo counselling and examine the details of her childhood. I'd suspected a couple of things along the way, but only in the final chapters do we learn exactly how unreliable a narrator Eleanor has been throughout the book, and this only made me wish even more for her to have her happy fairytale ending... okay, so maybe I'm still a fantasy fan :-)
If you haven't read this book yet, and it happens to cross your path as it did mine (one of March's 5 books for £1 charity shop bundle), then you could do worse for a wet bank holiday read. It's one of those stories that could be set in Anytown, although one or two references to accents and 'hens' suggest Eleanor might live in the author's home city of Glasgow, Scotland. Don't be put off by this. Eleanor's story is universally compelling with a fair dose of humour along the way, and should appeal to readers of all ages (YA and older).
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Katherine Roberts writes fantasy and historical fiction for young readers.
Not quite ready for Eleanor Oliphant? Katherine's second Earthaven book Spell Spring is currently on special offer for the Easter holidays. Enjoy!
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| Spell Spring (Kindle book) * only 99p/99c * |
Comments
(Peter - we used to live in Bletchley but it was before everyone knew about Bletchley Park. My son and I visited it a few years ago, though, and were both very impressed indeed by it - so much bigger and more interesting than we'd expected)