Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine
Ratings621
Average rating4.1
I really enjoyed this book. It was very well written and took the reader on Eleanor's journey of self discovery while slowly revealing her past. Great read.
You know how when someone embarrasses themselves in a movie it can be painful to watch? Some people find it funny, but I myself find it unpleasant to watch. This book was a bit like that for me.
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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I steeled myself as best I could, and, with teeth gritted, using only one finger I typed:
C U there E.
I sat back, feeling a bit queasy. Illiterate communication was quicker, that was true, but not by much. I'd saved myself the trouble of typing four whole characters. Still, it was part of my new credo, trying new things. I'd tried it, and I very definitely did not like it. LOL could go and take a running jump. I wasn't made for illiteracy; it simply didn't come naturally. Although it's good to try new things and to keep an open mind, it's also extremely important to stay true to who you really are. I read that in a magazine at the hairdressers.
Where'd You Go, Bernadette
I wasn't sure what to expect when I picked this one up. I'd seen numerous great reviews, a lot of “you've got to read this” and it kept making book club lists. Most everywhere, people were raving about it. And what do you know, they were right. Full of charm, humor and a bit of sadness. Well paced and well drawn characters. Bonus points to the author because I didn't quite catch the big twist until a comment Raymond made after Eleanor started therapy.
Um livro sobre amizade, solidão e da importância de não nos isolarmos em nós e nos nossos problemas.
A vida ás vezes é uma merda, mas quando estamos perto de pessoas que nos amam, torna-se um pouco menos merdosa.
about five pages into this book i was like “this is not that remarkable, i can basically see where it's going” and then i blinked and it was 1 am and i'd read another 200 pages without getting up. it doesn't go where you think it's going to, and even when it does, it's still pretty moving.
This is a slow, quiet, ache of a book.
I finished last night but I am having a hard time articulating how I feel about it. But it was very good, and that cover art isn't doing it any favors.
I really enjoyed this book. It reminded me in some ways of A Man Called Ove. Eleanor Oliphant is a woman with very few social skills and as the story unfolds we begin to learn why. The relationship she has with “Mummy” is toxic and has coloured and shaped her entire life.
She begins to grow and change though when she meets a unlikely friend at work and learns how to interact with the world. Gail Honeyman takes you on a fascinating ride with Eleanor and although I was never really sure if I “liked” her, I did begin to root for her to have a better life.
This is the first book this year that has had me so deeply conflicted. Things I liked in this book I really loved and bits I didn't enjoy in this book, I passionately disliked. It is so difficult to summarise my feelings on this book here. I will be doing a video on my channel soon to better unpick my thoughts on this book. In simple terms however I loved the relationship between Raymond and Eleanor but I struggled to warm to Eleanor's character overall and I found the book (good days and bad days) as two separately constructed books that were pushed together and lacked a fluidity. I got no sense of suspension or anticipation for the action that would happen in the book and I found Eleanor's crush implausible and it ruined other elements of the book. For now I will give the book between 3 and 3 and a half stars and discuss it in more depth with you soon on my channel!
An excellent read. Eleanor is a very quirky character which you can not help but love. She has had a horrendous upbringing and has struggled throughout her life on her own until she meets the lovely Raymond. A funny, sad and uplifting book.
I wanted to like this book more than I did, and some parts were funny. But ultimately I couldn't believe in the character of Eleanor, which is what this book rides on.
“A philosophical question: if a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? And if a woman who's wholly alone occasionally talks to a pot plant, is she certifiable? I think that it is perfectly normal to talk to oneself occasionally. It's not as though I'm expecting a reply. I'm fully aware that Polly is a houseplant.”
― Gail Honeyman, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine
This is the best, most touching and remarkable, book I've read in forever! Beautiful. I borrowed this from the library to read on my Kindle, and I'm going to return it right away for someone else to read, and I hope they get as much out of it as I did. I'm thinking I need my own copy.
I absolutely ADORED this book!! I honestly cannot praise it highly enough.
The book follows Eleanor Oliphant who is a lonely women with a regimented and solitary lifestyle, which she is, as the title suggests, completely fine with. Then a series of events occur, which may seem quite small and trivial to someone else but not to Eleanor - slowly her life starts to change, as does she.
Eleanor and the rest of the characters are wonderfully written and I enjoyed following their interactions and journey through the book. I especially loved Eleanor, her way of seeing the world, her straight talking attitude and her complete naivete at social situations. I smiled so much throughout.
This book is, at its heart, about kindness, friendship and how loneliness can affect someone. You really get a sense of how something you deem as small can affect someone and their life. It is warm, funny and touching and will stay with me a long time.
Reading Challenge category: a book from the 2017 Goodreads awards
I LOVED this book. I don't want to say too many ch about it because of spoilers, but it was so so good. It reminded me a little at first of A Man Called Ove, but with way more plot, and darker. Highly recommend.
Listened to this in the car. Loved it. It's the story of Eleanor who is socially awkward and working through some rather difficult personal history. Eleanor slowly blossoms as the book progresses. I really liked that the story doesn't go any further than it needs to. Eleanor develops as a person - and it's interesting getting to know her. Even with Eleanor's somber personal history - the story is actually funny - and I suspect much MUCH funnier in book form rather than audiobook (as humor is about timing... and the timing isn't always quite right). I'll probably reread this one in the future. A+
A sad story with a sense of humour and a tidy ending. I listened to the audiobook and probably enjoyed it more than I would‰ЫЄve otherwise, thanks to the Scottish accents for the characters who weren‰ЫЄt Eleanor.
Really enjoyed this book. At first I thought it was another one of those novels featuring a person on the spectrum who doesn't quite understand social encounters, causing hilarity to ensue (I'm coming to hate those books) but there is something far darker in Eleanor's past that has led to her isolation and awkwardness. Watching her slowly emerge from her shell and build a few tentative relationships is poignant and sweet, and okay more than a little bit funny. Plus there's a fat scene-stealing cat who helps melt Eleanor's heart, so my feline-loving self was extra happy.
I will say that the jacket description is somewhat misleading; the old man who is rescued by Eleanor and her IT coworker Raymond plays a different role from what I had been expecting, but that doesn't take away from the story's strength and heart. An excellent life-affirming novel that never stoops to too much treacle or sentimentality. Very impressive for a debut author.
ETA on re-read May 2018: Maybe even better as a re-read because you can see all of the clues you missed the first time through for the plot twists.
I feel like I've been reading either 1s or 5s, lately, and I'm kind of exhausted. This is yet another in a long line of debut novels I've unintentionally read this year, and it's unexpectedly, astonishingly brilliant.
The pace was perfect, in that my mind never wandered whilst I read it. The storytelling was perfect, in that I had trouble putting down the book and kept thinking about it when I wasn't reading it. It was almost entirely predictable, but not offensively so, which I found impressive. Great ending, too, which is often where a story fails me.
The content (warning: child abuse) makes it difficult to read, but in the end Eleanor's story didn't leave me shattered. While her experience was certainly devastating, she survived and eventually learned how to live. Her life is full of hope and compassion in entirely delightful ways. Within context, Eleanor's interactions and leaps of logic felt natural; the story didn't feel contrived and I didn't feel manipulated.
Fantastic.
Spoilers alert!
I recently re-read Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, as I had recommended it to my book club and originally read it 2 years ago.
It was interesting everything I picked up on the re-read, having found out the big twist at the end. The “calls” from the mother are interesting, as you pick up that there's no text about the telephone being used, for example.
Good news - everyone in the book club loved it, and we had an interesting discussion about whether or not she would be considered to be on the spectrum (and apparently the author has said that she isn't).
One person brought up reactive attachment disorder, and this to me makes a great deal of sense as to what's going on with Eleanor. This is when infants don't securely bond to someone - and I can't imagine that infant Eleanor was able to bond with her mother.
One page that I googled about reactive attachment disorder in adults said this:
“Infants and young children with reactive attachment disorder face long-term risks that have consequences in their adulthood. Reactive attachment disorder in adults can mean poor adjustment in many areas of life. RAD also causes low self-esteem and sense of self-efficacy; the lack of support and attachment from birth results in adults who don't believe in themselves and their ability to live well. This is especially true for those who haven't received treatment for reactive attachment disorder.
Perhaps the biggest risk reactive attachment disorder has in adults is with relationships. The first attachment relationship is important in paving the way for future relationships. Without forming a bond with a caregiving adult, the person often has great difficulty forming and/or maintaining future social and intimate relationships.
Reactive attachment disorder in adults can also put someone at risk for other mental disorders. Anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, dissociative disorders, and personality disorders are commonly experienced by people with reactive attachment disorder or other attachment problems.”
Great book, have kleenex available, and enjoy meeting Eleanor!
As lovably-literal as Amelia Bedilia and as dysfunctionally-warped as Meredith Grey, Eleanor is one of the most unique character voices of any book I've read. This story had me giggling. This story had me grieving. Honeyman's writing reveled in fineness.
I liked this so much! It was darker than I expected from reviews–and that's a good thing. Excellent debut novel. I also just read that the author wrote it while working a full-time job. Perhaps that how she captured office culture so accurately. I was genuinely concerned about Eleanor being able to come up with a good idea for the office holiday party...