#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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Eleanor is one of my favorite books recently. Completely original and fun to read.
I woke up at 4am this morning with Eleanor on my mind. I did nothing but read for the next two hours. Although I’m finished (and ready for a nap), I still can’t get Eleanor and her story out of my head. This book is beautiful in a heartbreaking, funny, endearing, and, most importantly, hopeful way. It’s darker than I expected and, yet, that is part of Eleanor—the darkness. This is the story of how she overcomes it, how she survives. Read it. You won’t be sorry.
Number of Ugly Cries: 3 (one of those was at the dentist’s office)
A very pleasant easy read.
Must read book!
I wanted to put this book down after the first chapter because I think it did what the author intended – made me not like Eleanor. However, I was reading it for a book club and once it was revealed that Eleanor had grown up in the foster system, I was hooked. Honeyman does an excellent job revealing Eleanor’s personality and her past secrets. The book explores trauma and loneliness in a wonderfully human and honest way, making you reader realize just how important your small, everyday interactions and acts can really be.
I didn’t finish because the tone of the book was so mean.
An entertaining story of growth and hope through trauma. The dissociation piece was a surprise and beautifully woven throughout the story.
This book is absolute perfection, my favorite read this year. It has all the feels!
A completely enjoyable read!
It’s amazing how this character wormed her way into my heart.
Eleanor Oliphant is destined to become one of the most memorable characters imagined in fiction. Certainly, she’s right at the tippy top of my favorites. Eleanor is pragmatic, funny, and pitiful, but never for a minute does she feel sorry for herself, even though she has plenty of reasons to.
From the first paragraph, Eleanor snags us by the sleeve and confides in first-person narration. The opening sentence tells us everything we need to know starting out: “When people ask me what I do – taxi drivers, dental hygienists – I tell them I work in an office.” The people in Eleanor’s life are taxi drivers and dental hygienists, not friends and family. What she does – all she does, except for pounding down Glen’s vodka on the weekends – is work.
Eleanor isn’t looking for happiness, but that doesn’t stop us from wanting it for her.
I highly recommend this debut novel, and I can’t wait to read more from Gail Honeyman.
Loved Eleanor Oliphant.
A fun read. Eleanore is a bit weird. She is OCD about things. She views herself as dumpy and frumpy but she has no time to pretend to be someone she’s not and she hates shallow people. She is perfectly fine if you don’t like her because she doesn’t like you either. But she makes a friend or two who seem to take a genuine interest in her and slowly she is drawn out of this bubble she has put herself in. It’s entertaining, witty. The main character can get annoying at times but not enough to make me want to put the book down.
Unexpected ending. Great story.
This isn’t the type of book I would typically pick up. I read for escape, to lose myself in someone else’s world for a little while, and so I usually grab a sci-fi or fantasy or romance. But my precious book club was reading Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, and my hand was forced.
I’m so glad it was! This book is hilarious and clever. It’s unpredictable. I LOVE the main character, Eleanor, and I swear the other day I thought in passing I hope Eleanor is doing okay. A book character’s well-being was on my mind, y’all.
There are scenes in this novel that had me belly-laughing, and scenes that made me cry. This is one I’ll re-read.
I know there is a lot of hype about this book, but it was not a winner for me. I found it just odd.
I missed the main characters for days after completing the book. Read it a second time.
Eleanor has had a rough life. Her mother tried to kill her and actually succeeded at killing her sister. Now her mother’s voice lives on in Eleanor’s mind, dragging her down.
Eleanor does her best to navigate life but has trouble relating to others and making friends.
She finally finds a friend who helps her put her past behind her.
It’s a funny and moving story.
Absolutely Fabulous! I’ve owned this book since it’s release and I can’t believe it took me this long to finally read it. I also had the pleasure of listening to it’s wonderful audio production. I was drawn into the story from the outset and kept captivated by the unpredictable story line. Initially, Eleanor came across as abrasive and while there was much character growth, the author maintained a believable characterization throughout. Eleanor softened, but rarely, if ever, deviated from her concrete way of thinking. I loved that consistency. There were also appealing secondary characters that help Eleanor discover what it means to rely on others, as well as being altruistic. Those interactions were some of the most moving moments in the story. While there was often a heartrending undertone in the story, it was equally uplifting with a beautiful and subtle ending.
This was a fabulous book! I listened to the audiobook, and I think it lives up to the hype. I loved every minute of Eleanor’s story.