Gail Honeyman: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine

I joined a new book club of ladies in my neighborhood, and I'm super excited to read more and get to talk about it with people I don't know as well. I'm excited to have a place where I feel like I fit in. This month, we read Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman.

Eleanor is completely fine. She has a job (working in accounts), she has a flat (furnished with odd, mismatched pieces), she has her weekly phone calls with mummy, and vodka to numb. Some weekends, she doesn't use her voice from the time she leaves work on Friday until she goes back to work on Monday. Eleanor doesn't really have any friends, but she does have a timetabled life, the same schedule, and the same stores. That is, until she sees the singer. Eleanor just knows from this one glance that a relationship with this man is right around the corner. She does everything she can to find out everything about him, going so far as to find out where he lives and follow him on social media. Everything is planned out. Then, she meets Raymond. Raymond is the IT guy, and while leaving the office one day, they witness a man collapse on the side of the road. After helping him get to the hospital, she and Raymond start to become friends.

This book was wild. I hate to confess that I almost put it down in the first 30 pages because Eleanor is so... odd. I have strong suspicions that she's likely autistic, and her quirks really started to get to me. However, I found myself strangely hooked, and the further into the novel I got, the more I got past her odd quirks. I read this book in two sessions because I was so oddly fascinated.

There isn't a very large cast of characters, and they're all pretty well done. Raymond is incredibly kind, and most of the time, doesn't judge Eleanor. I also liked that he's not really interested in anything more than just being friends. He looks out for her, invites her out, and eventually saves her.

The old man they help, Sami, also becomes such an integral part of Eleanor's world, and then so does his family. While we don't spend a lot of time with the family (other than Sami's daughter, Laura), they take Raymond in, and then by extension, Eleanor. Sami is so sweet to her, and ignores so many of her quirks and odd gifts.

While the plot isn't all that intense, or action packed, I didn't find myself bored. There was enough going on all the time that kept my attention and kept the story moving. Everything felt meaningful, and I found myself unable to put the book down. I enjoyed it far more than I thought I would, and the emotional payouts at the end were amazing. Honeyman has some good twists in the story that made it all worth it.

I ended up rating this book

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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