#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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DNF at 50%
This was a hit for so many, but definitely a miss for me. While Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine seemed as if it could be an important read, I couldn’t bring myself to keep coming back to the book, to bounce around in the sadness and awkwardness of Eleanor’s mind.
I have an adult son who has struggled every day of his life with Asperger Syndrome and a severe anxiety disorder. Perhaps Eleanor’s plight hit too close to my home. I wasn’t enchanted by Eleanor’s rigid idiosyncracies and odd concepts of what is appropriate in the world. Instead, I felt sicker and sicker as I read further in.
To those who loved this book, it’s definitely not the novel, it’s me. And I know myself well enough to walk away when the reading gets tough.
The originality of this novel is what is striking, as well as its readability. The narrator/protagonist, Elinor, is a reclusive accounts payable clerk, an office outsider whose strange behavior has marked her as a misfit. A graduate of the foster-care system, she lives alone, lunch hours spent with crossword puzzles and weekends spent with wine, frozen pizza and two bottles of vodka–which result in sleep until Monday morning. Verbally adept and bright, her unconsciously witty deadpan observations of people and events around her are the heart of the novel, along with the slow unfolding of the reason for her isolation and oddball behavior, with a twist at the end. Ultimately, the novel sings of the transformative power of friendship, the difference it can make in a life.
This book is so bloody adorable! I was nervous at first after reading the premise of Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, but let me tell you, the author Gail Honeyman really out did herself.
Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine. She goes to her office job five days a week. On the weekend she treats herself to a frozen pizza and bottle of vodka. She lives alone and has no friends, but that is perfectly fine. She’s doing fine.
But maybe she isn’t.
“These days, loneliness is the new cancer – a shameful, embarrassing thing, brought upon yourself in some obscure way.”
Every day of Eleanor’s life is the same, she would be nothing if it weren’t for her routines. One night that all changes. After work, she and a fellow co-worker Raymond, find themselves in the right place at the right time. After witnessing a man fall on the sidewalk they discover he is in desperate need of an ambulance. This event ties the three together, evolving Eleanor’s life in the most compelling way. It produces a friendship between them all, something of which Eleanor has never had.
All the while, Eleanor meets the man she has been waiting for her whole life — the man she is meant to be with. In a desperate attempt to get him to notice her, Eleanor grows more confident and daring. In this drastic change in trying to follow her heart, she actually opened herself up to form friendships with people who were in her life.
“And, really, I was fine, fine, fine. Was I not here, after all, out in the world, and going to a party? Dressed in my finery and awaiting an acquaintance? Look out, Saturday night, here comes Eleanor Oliphant! I allowed myself a little smile.”
I found this book to be whimsical, charming and absolutely lovely! I was laughing at parts, almost crying at others. Honeyman takes traumatic and serious issues and weaves it into a funny, warm and even sad compelling story.
I ask that anyone and everyone go out and get this book. You will not be disappointed by Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman, if anything you’ll be like me, waiting to see what else the author has lines up down the road!
Read more of my review here: https://bit.ly/2BEev66
A great read that cleverly uses humour to highlight what it can be like for the people who are seen as “difficult” in the work place. Charming, inspirational and different.
This is a lovely book with a protagonist you can’t help liking. Eleanor Oliphant lives a life of routine and that suits her just fine. She has a way of looking at the world that almost makes you envy her – her thoughts on a certain fast food chain, beauty treatments, and how one should be served in a pub have you nodding your head in agreement. And her first experience of buying drinks in a pub will have you laughing out loud.
As the story develops, you find that Eleanor Oliphant isn’t Completely Fine – far from it. You follow her experience of first love with your heart in your mouth, desperately wishing you could take her to one side and have a serious talk with her. When Raymond enters her life, everything is turned upside down and Eleanor must face up to her past or risk destroying herself.
The story just grabs you right from the beginning and pulls you in, each page taking you on a roller coaster of emotions. A wonderful book that I look forward to reading again.
Original, eccentric, heartbreaking, irreverently funny – these are all adjectives to describe Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. I loved this book from beginning to end. At the very beginning I found Eleanor a bit off-putting, but it didn’t take long for her to endear herself to me in her own quirky way. I fell in love with Raymond for being Eleanor’s best friend through thick and thin. He’s a non-judgmental, easy-going sort – Eleanor’s opposite, yet exactly the person she needed most in her life. Honeyman adeptly left clues and hints along the way as to why Eleanor is the way she is, which served to whet the appetite for more without becoming frustrating for the reader. The end was totally satisfying and even had a little twist I wasn’t at all expecting.
A really wonderful read!
One man’s accident triggers a friendships that becomes a tipping point in the life of Eleanor Oliphant. Reading about Eleanor’s journey as she emerges from a dark and lonely life into a woman who opens herself up to recovery is heartwarming.
Gail Honeyman’s novel gives the reader a view of how a terrible childhood can have life long effects on a person. After reading this novel I can’t help but give second thoughts to what could be behind the quirkey and lonely people in our world.
Wonderful story of someone finding out who they really are as a person and opening themselves up to acceptance. At times witty, tearful , but inspiring journey.
This was an amazing debut novel, set in Scotland, very unexpected storyline. I love Eleanor! If you’re a fan of Frederick Backman and A Man Called Ove, Eleanor has a similarly cantankerous surmudgeonly feel, although she’s only 30!
I thought this would be a humorous book because Reese Witherspoon declared it “Hilarious” on the cover, and boy was I wrong. Yes, there are amusing bits but I cried from beginning to end. I couldn’t put it down and I really enjoyed all of it. Reminded be a little of The Rosie Project, which I adore. This is a great read but bring the tissues!
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, but that’s just too damn boring for me.
Is it me or do all these books about young love seem to be a repeat of the same beats using different instruments? I’ll give the author credit for her ability to push prose, but the content is all too familiar and mostly a turn off.
There were, however, a couple of details that gave this title some redeeming value. The title character seemed in the beginning to display some traits of a sociopath, but her flawless character never wanted to hurt anyone, least of all her mother. The author appeared to be modeling Eleanor after Patrick Bateman, everyone’s favorite American Psycho, less a Norman Bates.
I was not a fan of Bret Easton Ellis’ perennial memoir expounding his delectable (narcissistic) tastes in ‘80s fashion and “scene posturing.” You might refer to my own review of the novel if you wish to see what I thought of it. But to have the dull character arcs repeated in this book was a bit unsettling, yet less tedious than Ellis, thus more tasteful. At one point, I dreaded so much that Oliphant was just another Bateman that I considered trashing the read, but eventually came back and finished, punctual and obedient as always. I never leave a task unfinished.
Then there were the dark times of Eleanor Oliphant that almost gave me an attentive sense of engagement, but that fell apart as well. Needless to say, the end (and the middle) (and the beginning) were quite predictable and nevertheless, unimpressive.
My advice: you should only read this if you are a “Ross and Rachel” kind of person. Me, I’m a Tyler and Marla kind of quack. Or rather a Lestat and Louis guy. But I digress, and The Dude abides.
The voice of Eleanor draws you in immediately, and this is a lovely funny book about loneliness, kindness, and being different. There is a little of Eleanor in each of us, and through her eyes we see the absurdity of the world, and how small acts of kindness really do make a difference.
The author, Gail Honeyman, is an exceptional storyteller who strategically leaves clues along the way. With tremendous precision, the compelling narrative gains tempo and volume until reaching the crescendo when the reader learns that Eleanor Oliphant is—or will be—fine. Completely fine.
Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine – except that she’s far from fine.
Mentally and physically scarred, thirty-year-old Eleanor leads the life of a lonely, friendless, awkward fifty-year-old spinster, diligently working in the accounts department of a design company, taunted or ignored by her workmates, living in a rented flat, seeing nobody socially, and spending all her weekends alone with a bottle or two of vodka and a houseplant called Polly which she’s had for years.
It’s time for things to change. But, when a kindly computer engineer at work offers the hand of friendship, Eleanor is almost too afraid to take it. She’s perfectly happy living alone and she doesn’t need a man in her life, even as a friend. Anyway, she has a major crush on a local singer and it’s taking all her emotional energy to keep fixated on him.
This story is told in the first person from Eleanor’s point of view. Gradually, the reader learns why Eleanor is so afraid of human contact and so determined not to let anyone into her heart or mind except on her own very stringent terms. She doesn’t trust anyone, and with good reason. A traumatised childhood, a bad relationship with a sadistic first boyfriend, and being brought into the world by a deranged mother aren’t the best foundations for a happy adult life.
This might sound like a depressing set-up for a novel, but Eleanor’s own voice and engaging personality make it a compelling read. She’s kind, generous and witty. She could be terminally self-pitying, but she’s not – she’s absolutely determined to be fine. She feels that if she can only hold herself together, and keep all those bad memories locked away, she’ll survive. But sometimes it’s better to share – that way healing lies…
There is a reason this book is so popular – its brilliant. I loved it. Most people do, except for my sister {hi Debs} but she’s weird.
The storyline, including the ‘Mummy Thing’ is very predictable but that isn’t where the strength of this book lies. The characters, the observations, the humour and the sadness are all depicted in the most brilliant way.
When I started reading I did wonder why everyone was raving about an autistic stalker! Although I haven’t noticed anyone else mentioning it, I’m not sure there wasn’t an underlying medical reason for Eleanor’s literal interpretation of the world as well as her childhood experiences? Either way as the read continued I came to realize there wasn’t a bad bone in Eleanor and she was always doing the best she could. As a character, she gets right under your skin. This for me is where the brilliance of the book lies. I defy anyone to read this book and not be screaming, “Please see what’s right in front of you,Eleanor.”
While everyone talks about Eleanor, I loved Raymond. I would so love to have a Raymond in my life!
Great book. Well worth the read.
I knew nothing about this book when I bought it except that it had all 5-star ratings. It didn’t take long to figure out that this is the best book I’ve read this year. Immediately I became engaged in Eleanor’s life. I went through all the emotions while I worked my way to the end. I read this book as quickly as I have ever read anything. I could not put it down. I hope we have not heard the last of Miss Eleanor Oliphant.
One of the most memorable characters I’ve encountered in a long time.
I loved the characters in this book. If you liked A Man Called Ove, you’ll probably like Eleanor. It was heartbreaking at times as you discovered why she was so biased and quirky but her evolution through the book is pure magic. Raymond may be one of my all time favorite characters.
This has to be one of the best books I have read all year. (Actually I listened to it.) This book was all about the voice, both the writing voice and the actual voice of the narrator. The narrator spoke with an English accent and could easily slip into a Scottish one with bits of French here and there. I’m realizing that I’m loving audio books when they have an authentic accent.
Eleanor had such a formal way for speaking and used such an extensive vocabulary, it was fun to read about her views of everyday activities. Many of her descriptions made me laugh. Throw in some Scottish (or maybe British) terms once in awhile and the writing was that much better. The first couple of chapters I felt I was listening to a female version of the Rosie Project… but soon I came to find out that Eleanor interacted with the world the way she did because she was hiding (partially from herself) a terrible past. Sprinkles of her childhood were sprinkled throughout leaving you guessing.
I loved Raymond. And his mother too.
I feel like calling this book “delightful”, a word I rarely use, but seems like the word Eleanor would use.
I can’t wait to discuss this book at book club.