Let's Bust a Recap : Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine shot onto the scene in 2017 scooping up awards left and right and popping up on a whole passel of must-read lists. Normally, a book this new wouldn't even be a blip on my radar, but after joining the #bookstagram at the end of 2018 and being a general fan of skimming over must-read lists, this one kept crossing my path. When people were still raving about it at the beginning of this year, I happened upon a copy at my favorite spot (you know the place) and promptly purchased it. But instead of bringing it home to languish on my shelves for an indeterminate amount of time as is my usual MO when I bring home a new stack of contemporary fiction, I ended up reading it right away. And I'm glad. Because it was great.

Debut novel of Scottish writer Gail Honeyman, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine was actually published after Honeyman submitted the first three chapters to a competition for unpublished fiction by female writers. In it, we meet 29 year old social misfit Eleanor who always says exactly what she thinks and spends her weekends alone eating frozen pizza and downing a couple bottles of vodka. After attending a local concert, she decides that she's meant to be with the lead singer of the band and begins a process of self-transformation. As Honeyman weaves together this story around themes of isolation, loneliness, friendship, and kindness, we wonder about Eleanor's mysterious past and how she has come to be where she is. 

NPR.org describes Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine as "deadpan, heartbreaking, and humorous all at once" and that description is dead on the money. I fell in love with Eleanor pretty quickly and was heartbroken over how she seemed to miss the mark on connecting with people even while chuckling at her total bluntness. I was a fan of any person who reached past her awkwardness to show her kindness. And I was rooting for Eleanor to be more than just fine, for her to make the human connection and thrive. When we finally learn the truth about Eleanor's life in a twist I did not see coming, I even more earnestly wanted her to discover the good things in life and come out stronger. 

Altogether an excellent novel, well-written and engaging throughout. I highly recommend it. Fair warning: there is a bit of rude language scattered throughout, if that's something that puts you off, but I personally thought it fit the circumstances and characters and was hardly gratuitous or shocking. I'm really impressed that this was Honeyman's debut novel in a field it seems she never planned on entering. She managed to write a very heavy story with a measure of quirky wit and lightness that made it a pleasure to read even as you cringed at the trauma of it. Well done. 

Several people compared Honeyman's Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine to Fredrik Backman's A Man Called Ove which was on my 2019 book list, but which I still haven't read. So now I'm even more anxious to get to that one sooner rather than later. (Although as I mentioned on Monday, I have a few more books I want to prioritize this year so I probably won't get to Ove until next year.) Have you read either of these books and did you connect to Eleanor or Ove? Do you keep up with all the hot new releases or do you wait to see if a book is going to stick around like I do?