Book Review: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, by Gail Honeyman
Written by Gail Honeyman, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine is a book about a young woman with a traumatic childhood who is socially inept and secluded, and her attempts to find love and the tragi-comic series of events that happen to her. Introduced as a financial clerk in a graphic design company, Eleanor works from Monday to Friday, buys two bottles of vodka on her way home on Friday, finishes them on the weekend. Rinse and repeat. She leads a solitary life. She isn't a social person, and her colleagues seem to find her weird and crazy.
Written as a first-person narrative, her internal monologue reveals an inability to understand social cues, difficulty forming empathic connections, and a sense of superiority which seems to be a defense mechanism against past trauma. Weekly calls from her mother reveal a tense relationship indicating emotional abuse. The novel tells the story of Eleanor looking for her one true love in a local band singer, her unexpected friendship with a work colleague, and the trajectory of unexpected healing and growth that happens through the course of the narrative.
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine is a study of deep loneliness, a loneliness that comes from childhood trauma, and how it can twist and shape the social experience. The narrative is suffused with a lightness of spirit, and the humor sprinkled throughout the novel keep it from being a dark tragedy. Instead, it focusses on the hope of connections and companionship which is often found among unexpected strangers and often ignored normal and unassuming people around oneself. A light but defnitely not a superficial read, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine is an uplifting novel that gives the message of empathy, connections, and companionship that can be found in the most ordinary of circumstances, and yet prove to be strong enough to heal the deepest of traumas.