#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AND THE PERFECT HOLIDAY GIFT A Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick“Beautifully written and incredibly funny, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is about the importance of friendship and human connection. I fell in love with Eleanor, an eccentric and regimented loner whose life beautifully unfolds after a chance encounter with a stranger; I think you will fall in love, … stranger; I think you will fall in love, too!” —Reese Witherspoon
No one’s ever told Eleanor that life should be better than fine.
Meet Eleanor Oliphant: She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy.
But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office. When she and Raymond together save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen on the sidewalk, the three become the kinds of friends who rescue one another from the lives of isolation they have each been living. And it is Raymond’s big heart that will ultimately help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one.
Soon to be a major motion picture produced by Reese Witherspoon, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is the smart, warm, and uplifting story of an out-of-the-ordinary heroine whose deadpan weirdness and unconscious wit make for an irresistible journey as she realizes. . .
The only way to survive is to open your heart.
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I loved this book. Great character development. At first you think it is just going to be funny as Eleanor decided how to remake herself to attract a semi famous local singer. As the story develops you begin to get hints of hidden past tragedy that has formed the person she is now. Read it to find out. Funny, entertaining, and poignant all at the same time.
Great
Remininscent (sp) of Fredrik Backman characters, simple story with memorable characters, problem solving and friendship/ties that bind.
Charming, clever, endearing and reflective. I thoroughly enjoyed the quirky character of Eleanor Oliphant and highly recommend this intriguing read. I read this as a borrowed book from my local library but will be making a purchase to add it to my personal collection.
What an original, beautiful book. Hard to match
I really liked all the main characters in this book. They were lovable and relatable.
This book is about a socially inept and quirky woman living her very scheduled life… but it all changes. She ends up opening up her heart and her painful memories, all for the better.
In some ways it reminded me of The Rosie Project or A Man Called Ove. There is language (lots of the f*word), and a heavier subject matter. The story will make you smile and make you feel sad as it deals with depression, death, alcoholism, suicidal thoughts and abusive relationships.
I still would recommend it though.
I listened to the audiobook and the narrator, Cathleen McCarron, was fabulous! 5 stars!
The storytelling was compelling and the characters well drawn. I laughed, felt teary, got chills, and was often on the edge of my (car) seat in anticipation of what was going to be revealed next. 5 stars.
Somehow though, there were parts of the story and of the characters that didn’t quite ring true. I heard myself saying, “Really?” even though I “really” fought feeling that way. 3 stars.
All and all a very enjoyable and worthwhile listen. 4 stars.
A wonderful feel-good book which, like an onion, only reveals its hidden layers gradually. And like an onion, brings a few tears to your eyes.
Eleanor Oliphant is a thirty-year-old single woman living in Glasgow, Scotland. Due to a childhood trauma, she grew up in foster homes, has very little knowledge of appropriate social interactions, and keeps to herself. She establishes a sort of friendship with the IT fellow at her place of employment and she begins to experience the real world….disappointments and all. Though frustrated with Eleanor at times, you will grow to love her, foibles and all!
This book will keep you guessing what is going on in Eleanor’s head.
I have recently recommended this book above all others. Beautifully written with original characters, it left me with a sense of hope for the human race. Loved it.
Loved the very quirky characters!
I had a lot of sympathy for Elinor, especially as an introvert who is very routine-driven. A quick read for me.
Debut novel by this author — whuuuuut? I am absolutely crushed that I’ve now finished this book and there will be no more Eleanor Oliphant in my car to keep me company for the ride home. The characters are so real that I truly cared about them, and I even wish that I knew them personally or could call them up on the phone. A portrait of loneliness, despair, and healing so vibrant that it deserves a solid five stars. The audio edition was AMAZING – the Scottish brogue the narrator used for Raymond and some of the other characters kept me hypnotized. There was a little bit of everything, joy, sadness, humor, insight…and an evil mother (“Mummy”). Highly recommended for book clubs and college (and maybe even honors high school) reading lists. If I had to compare it with anything, I would choose HEFT by Liz Moore meets A MAN CALLED OVE by Fredrik Backman (two other magnificent books).
This story had you fighting for Eleanor and wanting to know her story. Tragic but her coping skills will leave you interested and entertained, and hopefully with the acceptance and compassion like Raymond. A book I will read again.
This book hooked me right away and was completely endearing the whole way through.
Eleanor is a lonely but quirky kind of character. I want to say that she has some type of autism, but she’s also not experienced any type of positive emotional relationship since she was a young child. She’s socially awkward and interprets things too literally. Her co-workers find her odd and she has no friends. She maintains a consistent schedule and she loves her vodka.
At first I wanted to compare Eleanor to Don Tillman from the Rosie Project, but this book is not that light hearted. Eleanor’s history is sad and she’s having a hard time working through her own internal desire for growth. Some of her observations are laugh out loud funny, but there are other points in the book where you want to cry. I thought this was a great book. I listened to the audio on this, but I might go back and read it to see if I missed anything.
Delightful character. She made me laugh and cry.
Loved this character.
I absolutely adored this story. Eleanor is an awkward, isolated, somewhat sad woman of 30 years old. She has had the same job since leaving university, am deathly spends her free time doing crosswords and drinking vodka. The only close relationship Eleanor seems to have is with her mother, which seems both dysfunction and manipulative. Through a series of events, Eleanor is thrust into new social situations and has the opportunity to branch outside her comfortable, contained world. This was a heartwarming, funny, sometimes sarcastic story, of the pains of the past and the promises of the future.