Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

“I suppose one of the reasons we’re all able to continue to exist for our allotted span in this green and blue vale of tears is that there is always, however remote it might seem, the possibility of change.”

Yes, Eleanor Oliphant is completely and utterly fine, thank you very much. She leads a well structured life, with a set routine that consists of frozen pizza and vodka on the weekends and weekly chats with Mummy. Her job is one that she has held for many years, since graduation in fact, and she is content to be just where she is with things just the way they are. Or maybe not. When Eleanor meets Raymond, the new IT guy at the office, she is not impressed with his manners or hygiene. However, an unlikely friendship forms after they save Sammy, an elderly man who fell on the sidewalk. Soon, Eleanor finds herself stepping outside of her well structured routine, and slowly facing her past and healing long-hidden wounds.

“I simply didn’t know how to make things better. I could not solve the puzzle of me.”

Eleanor Oliphant is a protagonist that will stick with me for quite some time. I tend to be hesitant to read books with, what might seem like, rather irritating main characters. On the surface, Eleanor is not very likeable as she significantly lacks any social awareness. However, the author does a fantastic job of introducing her as a character and then slowly revealing her past, which unveils the reasons for her being the way she is and her struggles. There are plenty of humorous moments in the novel and plenty of heartbreaking ones. The more I got to know Eleanor the more invested I became in her journey and efforts to come to terms with the past, while bettering her present. As the story progressed I simply couldn’t help but root for Eleanor Oliphant. This novel is emotional, incredibly endearing, and one that I will happily keep rereading.