|Book Review|: Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine

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Book Title: Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine
Genre: Fiction, Mental health, Adult fiction, Chic lit
No. of books so far: 1
Series: -
Book order: 1
Author: Gail Honeyman

Synopsis: 

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 unnecessary human contact, 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, the three rescue one another from the lives of isolation that they had been living. Ultimately, it is Raymond’s big heart that will help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one. If she does, she'll learn that she, too, is capable of finding friendship—and even love—after all.

Smart, warm, uplifting, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is the 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.

My Thoughts: 

The book is in first person narration. Eleanor Oliphant narrates her life to us. The books starts off with Eleanor introducing herself and making us go along with her everyday routine. She is a 30 years old young woman all alone in this world. Her only living relative is her mother who is away from her and the only source of contact with her is a weekly phone call, every Wednesday. Eleanor is a stickler for routine and is punctual to the dot. She gets up on time, follows her robotic routine, reaches office on time, does her job meticulously, keeps to herself at her workplace and returns home once the day is done. Once she chances into her pjs, she eats dinner alone and reads a bit and off she goes to sleep. Over the weekends she treats herself with vodka to kill time as she has nothing to do. She does not have any friends and is a socially isolated, awkward being. She is intelligent, smart and very well versed, her speaking mannerisms are exceptional but she lacks social cues of filtering. Lets say, her brain to mouth filter is non-existent. Hence, she speaks the first thing that comes to her mind, leaving people flabbergasted at times with her unfiltered thoughts. People maintain distance from her due to her appearance and awkward nature and she is rarely ever involved in idle gossips or chit chat at work. All this changes when suddenly Eleanor finds the perfect man of her dreams, the person she could envision spending her life with. He appears to her as an embodiment of perfection. She is left awestruck by his beauty, music and speech. She has not met him personally yet and has only seen him from a distance but she already starts day dreaming about him and their life together. 

One day, Eleanor's computer stops working and she meets Raymond from IT at office. He is new in the office and Eleanor has never met him before. Raymond is an easy going, chatty, warm fellow. His casual mannerisms offend Eleanor and she bids him away as soon as her computer is fixed. Raymond and Eleanor meet again on the road while walking back home from office and an old man faints on the pavement. Raymond's first instinct it to help the man while Eleanor just wants to leave him on his own and get back home. She is dragged into helping the old chap by Raymond and she unwillingly tags along. An ambulance and paramedics arrive on the scene and the old man is taken to the hospital. Raymond accompanies the old man to the hospital while Eleanor goes home taking with her the bag of belongings of old man, to be returned next day. This whole ordeal left Eleanor a bit irritable as going out of her way for someone else has never been Eleanor's thing. In her mind, she wasted her time. Next day, Raymond insists Eleanor to visit Sammy, the old man at the hospital to return his belongings which again is another nuisance to her. Once she reaches the hospital, she is greeted by his family and everyone is very thankful to her for saving their father's life. Eleanor has never experienced gratitude from anyone in her life and it makes her very happy and emotional. She could not even process the emotions she was feeling at the time. For the first time she felt useful and valued. 

This one event leads Eleanor into a forced friendship with Raymond. They are invited to Sammy's place for party as a token of thanks. This was probably the first time that Eleanor was invited to someone's place and she was over whelmed with the emotions she felt there to experience a normal household, relations and family. Along with the budding new friendship, Eleanor continues her efforts to get noticed by the man of her dreams. For the first time ever, she thinks of working on her appearance. She opts for a manicure, pedicure, haircut and bikini wax. As much as she is amazed at the cost of these services, she also finds them to be over rated. She is later surprised at the reactions of people around her. She receives compliments on her look which make her bolder in her endeavors to pursue the man. Her friendship with Raymond is one thing which unknowingly drags Eleanor out of her shell and experience normal life emotions. The book is quirky at places where we see Eleanor reacting to situations in her way, unfiltered and unabashed. As much as her responses to situations are funny, they are also sad at a deeper level. We explore how lonely it is for Eleanor. She is so content in her loneliness and is dependent upon herself in such entirety that she does not find herself being the odd one. The book dives further into Eleanor's life and we get to know how traumatized Eleanor is and how there are subdued memories and flash backs she can not relate to. Her trauma has shaped her whole being. Her mother is a toxic being responsible for Eleanor's state yet she clings to her phone calls weekly as they are the only source of conversation with another being. 

The book stunned me with its naked truth, we human beings are social animals and can not function normally in isolation. We simply can not ignore the relevance of human contact and validation. Raymond is one person who stays along with her journey and has such a positive impact on her personality that she completely transforms. How the presence of one being impacts our lives!!!

By the end the books gets so intense diving into the depths of Eleanor's personality that it no longer remains a fun read, it becomes intense and serious. This book is a trigger warning for people who have endured some sort of violence, abuse and bullying. It tells how a person's personality can shatter and defragment when exposed to toxic people around. 

Verdict: 

Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine is a beautiful read. It makes you feel emotions. It makes you laugh and cry. I urge everyone to give this book a chance. It is worth the read and time. I am amazed how beautifully Gail has penned Eleanor's unique personality in her debut novel. 

Availability: 

I purchased mine from Liberty Books. 

Price: 

Rs. 850/- approx. $5.5

Rating: 

5/5 

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