Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is really hard for me to put into words. I almost abandoned this book...twice. I just didn't understand Eleanor and her quirkiness. But person after person said they loved this book and loved Eleanor. And well, I love books that take place in the UK, and after Alan Cumming's "Not My Father's Son", I was in a better head space for a book about dysfunctional families (not to mention, another book set in Scotland). So I came back and decided to power through more of it, and it was Raymond, rather than Eleanor that was my gateway in. Eleanor works with Raymond in the story, and as one of her only regular contacts, he quickly became my access point to seeing Eleanor in a more relatable way.

All of this to say that this book is really good. Its characters are more than caricatures, and its plotlines powerful, but not in a self-important way. In fact, the deft hand with which Honeyman weaves humor and tragedy is so profoundly human. This book was a better version of Fredrik Backman's "Britt-Marie was Here" and a modern and more comical version of the gothic "Thirteenth Tale" by Diane Setterfield. Read it. It's worth the journey.

Happy reading--