#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.
more
Loved!
Eleanor, I am so sorry I finished your book. I will miss you like crazy!!
Eleanor is one of the most delightful and genuine characters I have come across. Getting to know her was such a wonderful experience, saying goodbye to her story was both heartbreaking and endearing. A truly beautiful book.
I was really captivated from the first few pages and had no idea where it was going. Full of twists and turns and nice ending.
I know many people loved the character of Eleanor. I didn’t so much, but the book was good enough to be worth a read. And there’s a most unexpected reveal!
I loved Elinor!! Highly recommend this one!!
Totally enjoyed this book. Interesting characters. Smooth read. Couldn’t put it down.
I really loved Eleanor Oliphant. She is different and quirky but as the story goes along you find out why. Sad at times but overall I couldn’t put it down.
This is the story about Eleanor, she had a very sad life and is used to be alone, she doesn’t know how to make friends and her real value, because she deserves so much more than she expects.
I loved reading from her point of view.
I couldn’t put it down. I loved it!
This book has me so torn! I appreciate the author reaching in and touching on a subject that can be extremely difficult to balance in a story. Recovering from trauma can look many different ways. Eleanor learned to cope the best she knows how from a young age, only to discover that she never really learned to live. This is the story of Eleanor learning to finally deal with her tragic past in order to enhance her existence by living.
I had two issues with this book:
1. The first: I did not like the main character for a good quarter of the book (if not more). The more I read, the more I liked and cared about her, but it was difficult to get to that place. Whether that was the intent of the author, as a reflection of Eleanor’s own feelings, I am not sure. Regardless, it did not make for an enjoyable beginning and I wanted to stop reading many times at the start of this book.
2. The second is apparently a “me” problem. In a lot of reviews of this book, I read descriptions such as “hilarious”, “witty”, and “adorable”. For me, it was absolutely none of those things. I found this book to be sad, tragic, and cringey. Not once did I laugh or feel the inclination to do so. This was not a feel good romance and I don’t understand the readers that understood it as such. However, to each their own.
I can’t say I would recommend this book, though, neither can I say I would slap it out of someone’s hand at a library or bookstore. What I can say, I finished it and didn’t hate it.
I want more!!! I didn’t want this book to end. Elenor is an amazing character and I fell in love. I was even surprised at the end by a twist. But following her metamorphosis was a joy! Love, love, loved this book!
Interesting characters and a hopeful story.
I saw the title of this book and became very intrigued in reading same.
Trust me, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine.
She is a strong young lady who has suffered from physical, emotional and psychological abuse especially from her mother (of all person).
One would think that Eleanor is uneducated and was hiding/living under a rock or is living in a bubble in her own small world all her life. Contrary to this belief, she is a very educated young woman who has bottled up her feelings in order to save herself past experiences and future abuse.
The truth is, many of us are walking around daily and is suffering from a range of illnesses and no one knows. But thank God, Eleanor has always had a guardian angel. Raymond was one of Eleanor’s guardian angels and he entered her life at exactly the right time. With his help, she learned to overcome a lot of obstacles and what to do in order to live a wholesome life. Maybe she too, will be able to help Raymond in the future.
But it is truly a fact that Eleanor Oliphant is “NOT” Completely Fine.
Very good story, but dragged out more than necessary
Friday night is Eleanor Oliphant’s favorite night of the week. She takes the bus home from her low-paying office job in a Glasgow ad agency, buys a Tesco pizza and two bottles of Vodka and then settles in at her apartment for a long weekend of public television, nature documentaries, and mental fuzziness.
And Eleanor is fine with that. Really fine. Really, she is.
More: https://daeandwrite.wordpress.com/2018/05/24/eleanor-oliphant-is-completely-fine-by-gail-honeyman/
I loved this book. After plenty of mediocre reads and then the heaviness of Gone to Soldiers, Eleanor Oliphant was a welcome change.
Written with a unique voice that reminded me of Ove (or more recently, Britt-Marie) in all the best ways, and with plenty of hilarity, this has been one of my favorite books all year.
Eleanor Oliphant is…different. She struggles in social settings (such as the office, or making a purchase in a shop) and has her life plotted out precisely, from her Wednesday evening chats with her (institutionalized) Mummy to knowing exactly how much vodka to sip through the weekend so that she is never completely drunk nor completely sober. Of course, the reader learns rather early that Eleanor’s life has considered of hardships and harder knocks, doled out at regular intervals, so such oddities help her cope.
Two events turn her life upside down, though. First, she has met the love of her life, a musician she saw at a gig, and whose name she learned on the internet, whom she must woo and marry. She also meets Raymond, the new IT guy in whose presence she is when Sammy, an elderly man falls on his way home and she and Raymond rescue. In rescuing and then befriending Sammy, Eleanor begins to see beyond her narrow routines and current life experience into what life is like for others…and could be for her.
Five stars.
(This review was originally published at https://www.thisyearinbooks.com/2019/12/eleanor-oliphant-is-completely-fine.html)
I had heard tell of Eleanor Oliphant being autistic and applauded this idea. However, she’s not.
What Eleanor is is a deeply troubled, traumatised woman who has developed rather unhealthy coping mechanisms.
Childhood abuse (not sexual) of the highest degree has induced repressed memories. She has been rendered socially awkward and detached.
Miss Oliphant isn’t terribly likeable. She’s an isolated lady who very much keeps herself to herself. Her inner monologue is incredibly acerbic with regards to everyone in the world, including herself.
Yet I felt myself concerned over her wellbeing. I kept reading, hoping to leave her in a place of safety.
The book follows her path of healing. A few counselling sessions seem to do wonders for this incredibly traumatised person. Hmm…not terribly realistic! Seriously, she’d require YEARS of therapy. I’m not quite sure why she’s not had more help already. I appreciate the system is often lacking but I’m fairly sure this girl would have had something.
The story doesn’t end with her magically better; she pledges to continue counselling. However, despite this, she is doing remarkably well for someone who’s just uncovered some horrific discoveries.
I did enjoy the other characters. Raymond and Sammy are a much-needed light relief.
Others have stated this is a funny book. Not really, no. The humour contained within, like the rest of the tale, is very dark.
The little head nods to Jane Eyre amused me. But by no means could the two books be compared.
I do enjoy dark books. And I liked the intention behind this novel.
It was oddly enjoyable.
Initially Ireally didn’t like it. But as I then kept reading I was intrigued. But the ending was a little bit of the unexpected . Didinn’t see it coming … Then thinking about it ater the total read, I understood what was really happening .
Nicely done and you end up trying to diagnose what Eleanor has, which makes for interesting book club discussion! Real twist in there!