Book Review: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

Eleanor Oliphant is Completley Fine by Gail Honeyman has been on my shelves for some months, just waiting for me to find the right time to read it.  I knew it was going to be a book I would want to read in big chunks, so my recent holiday and long aeroplane journey was the perfect opportunity.

Eleanor Oliphant likes routine.  Each day she wears the same clothes, eats the same lunch and buys the same pizza and two bottles of Vodka on a Friday night.  Her days are carefully scheduled with little opportunity for the unexpected, this is how she functions.  She prides herself on her lack of need and self sufficiency.  She is compleltey fine.  Or is she?

When Eleanor finds herself in a situation where she is forced to break with her routines, her world begins to rock.  She  excels in self preservation, but an unexpected event means is gradually forced to face up to those terrible things she  carefully tidied away into the recesses of her mind many years before. She experiences generosity and friendship in unexpected ways, and as a result finds herself in new and sometimes uncomfortable situations.

Eleanor’s character is wonderful.  She is quirky and funny and sad and frighteningly intelligent.  Her interactions with both the fleeting characters and the other main characters of the story are all carefully and kindly managed.  Each relationship is used to demonstrate her cleverness, her warmth and her vulnerability.  Despite Eleanor’s supposed wish for an isolated life, events overtake her, and the persistant kindness of others gradually breaks through her brittle and fragile exterior.

There are important messages in this book about the impact of childhood upon adult hood, the long term effects on mental health of a traumatic event and, the way society has a tendency to treat ‘different’ with suspicion, often  deeming it unacceptable.

Ultimately this is a book about courage and finding joy and happiness against all the odds, whilst also daring to be different. It is also a book about friendship and love and trust and relationships in unexpected places. And I loved it for that and so many other reasons.

It is hard to believe this is Gail Honeyman’s first novel.  It is original and clever and insightful and beautifully written.  The story moves steadily forward, giving few hints of what is to come in the wonderful life affirming climax.

This book has been everywhere for some time now, but if like me you have been a little slow to read it, then I urge you to beg, borrow, although probably not steal (!) a copy.  Find somewhere peaceful to sit and lose yourself in the some times chaotic, sometimes heartbreaking, often amusing world of Eleanor Oliphant.  This book is so much more than ‘completely fine’.