#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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Not even done with this book and I love it!
Enjoyed this book very much!
Very entertaining and a nice story to read at this time when we all upset over the coronavirus
Although Eleanor is a very unusual person but I grew to like her immediately. She had the worst childhood and it has followed her into adulthood. She slowly discovers her idiosyncrasies and works on fixing them through various methods. In the end Eleanor Oliphant is most definitely going to be alright.
Book club discussion was very interesting
It took me awhile to warm up to this character, but I am very glad we worked things out. 🙂 What a story! Enjoyed the tiny romance and ended up wanting only the best for Ms. Oliphant.
I love a book with a big sense of humour and an even bigger heart – Eleanor is a hero. x
A bit slow to get into the book. I struggled to stay interested.
This book wasn’t all what I expected, and it ended up being a good thing! It continued to surprise me even when I thought I had it all figured out. The characters were real and raw. The love story was genuine and not forced or cliche. This innovative and unique book was one I need to instantly read again!
There are a hundred ways to describe this superb character study, set in Glasgow, and none of them would really fit the bill. This is a truly original novel, one that is well worth the read.
Fabulous book!!!
Don’t waste your time
Brilliant. Gail’s writing style is addictive, I devoured it and felt rather lost once I’d finished.
At first, I was expecting a tale of a quirky person that every office seems to have but when you get to know Eleanor you find there is so much more to her. What made Eleanor the way she is? Who is her mummy?
A delightful story that had me looking forward to reading each evening to delve into her version of the world.
Socially, Eleanor Oliphant is far from fine. She is an emotional cavewoman: awkward, technologically retarded and blunt. She lives in a straitjacket of habit: work, pizza, crosswords, vodka. She speaks as if she has learned English by studying Jane Austin on a different planet – her language is antiquated, her expressions woodenly proper. She dresses hideously in a sexless jerkin and Velcro shoes, carrying around a shopper bag wherever she goes. People annoy her and she is judgmental about them in return in the most hilarious way imaginable. The only person she communicates with regularly is Mummy who routinely puts Eleanor down. Other than that, Eleanor is alone. Her loneliness is acute though she doesn’t realise that.
And then Raymond, an IT guy from work, reaches out to her. It isn’t romantic (Eleanor has other – comical – romantic interests). It is just simple kindness. Eleanor begins to open up like a little flower touched by the early-morning sun. She takes the reader on a journey into her horrifying past. I won’t betray the story. Suffice to say that towards the end I was smiling through tears. A loveable story.
I was the only member of my book club who did not enjoy this book. I found it to be depressing and sad, mainly because the title character, Eleanor, is so damaged and tragic. As a retired school counselor, I’ve worked with enough students who had horribly similar upbringings and the resulting mental scars. I just did not like working through the issues Eleanor Faced. While I recognized her remarkable resilience, I did not find the book to be as full of hope as others did.
There were many laugh-out-loud moments in this book. Eleanor was awesome, so not self-aware while thinking she was, of course (aren’t we all like that sometimes?). While I laughed a lot with this book, there were also many emotional moments that made me angry, sad, nervous, you name it.
Do you know anyone who lacks “filters” when interacting with others? Her co-workers think her “odd”. Read this story to experience her “personal opening” to the world and find joy in her success in addressing her struggles.
Often funny, often sad. You are really drawn into Eleanor’s life and root for her success.
This book is lovely. I never would have read it, except it was a book club read. Learned my lesson (or I’m trying to, about books and covers and descriptions). The story is neat and sweet and thought provoking. An odd ball romance that isn’t about romance.