Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail HoneymanMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Eleanor Oliphant was a traumatized child, was traumatized as a young adult, but is now hitting 30. She has a job but no friends or family to support her. She is in a shell, conversing with herself using a classic literature vocabulary to express in specific detail what she wants to express. This story is about her coming out of her shell, lead in part by a co-worker who befriends her. At times, this sounded like it was turning itself into a Chuck Palahniuk novel (think “Invisible Monsters”), but ended up more along the lines of, as another reviewer mentioned, Forest Gump or Rainman. It’s “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”, but instead of murder and hacking and revenge and Blomkvist, there’s accounting and a cat and a scraggly IT guy.
The story grew on me. I did not like it over the first 2/3 or so. Eleanor reminded me of someone I know, and the self-narration felt like an intrusion into what I saw as a daily struggle, but what Eleanor just mindlessly dealt with. We are meant to laugh at some of the predicaments, but again, this felt too close to home to wholly appreciate. As the story ended, though, you saw growth, and are left with a feeling that she will prevail over her situation given enough time, and perhaps even thrive. Can’t ask for much more than that.
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