I want to tell you about this book, which many of you have already read; but some of you have not, and perhaps for reasons similar to mine, which I would like to talk you out of:
(image from Target.com)
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, by Gail Honeyman (Target link) (Amazon link).
This is a book that was recommended to me many, many, many times. Several people recommended it on the Books Worth Buying post, but Claire pointed out that something very bad/traumatic happens to children, which could violate this thing I said when asking for recommendations: “and nothing where a major plot point is the abuse and/or traumatic death of an animal or child—unless somehow the author pulls it off, and there ARE books where that happens,” and that is probably why I didn’t add it to my To Read list at the time.
For me, this was one of those books where the author did pull it off. But I want to tell you my actual reasons for not reading the book even when I saw it recommended all over the place, because I had forgotten ALL ABOUT Claire’s warning when I finally read it.
The first reason is the cover, which communicates that the book is being marketed as Chick Lit. I read a lot of books marketed as Chick Lit, and a lot of them are great—and a lot of them are what I will kindly refer to as “fluffy.” Another reason is the title, which is whimsical; another reason is that the name of the main character is deliberately over-charming and not right for her age. These things are not absolute deal-breakers, but they are common signals that I am not going to like the book. The whole package reminded me of Evvie Drake Starts Over, another VERY RECOMMENDED book, which I finally tried, and it was an absolutely competently-written book by someone who had decided to write a book, and I didn’t catch the magic of it at all.
But the thing that REALLY kept me from reading it before now was the description on the inside front cover, which, like the description on the inside front cover of A Prayer for Owen Meany, was so off-putting to me that I almost couldn’t even make myself TRY the book, FOR FREE, from the library:
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.
So, absolutely not. This is a movie starring Zoe Deschanel or Maggie Gyllenhaal as Eleanor, and Chris O’Dowd or the serious version of Will Ferrell as Raymond. They will be beautiful people dressed as nerds, charming people being charmingly awkward, and we will get to know their separate lives a bit, and then they will meet awkward-cute and have an awkward-cute relationship, probably bumping into each other awkwardly and losing their glasses and so forth, and a charming old man with twinkling eyes will be involved. I’m out.
Okay, but finally TOO MANY people had talked about the book, and then Hello Korio recommended it and said it reminded her of Fredrik Backman books, which I generally love, so FINE: I will read it if only so I could say “Nope, I tried it, not for me.”
Well, and of course I loved it. LOVED IT. It was EXTREMELY MY THING. I totally agree that it’s like Fredrik Backman, especially the one with Britt-Marie and the one with Ove, where you start by thinking the person is so unpleasant you don’t want to read about them at all, and then after awhile you find yourself succumbing to their charms and to the charms of all the wonderful imperfect lovable human beings around them. (If you never got the magic of Britt-Marie or Ove, Eleanor Oliphant may not be your thing either.) Or it’s like the TV show Schitt’s Creek, where everyone tells you to PERSEVERE through the first season where you hate everyone, to get to the part where you only hate Roland.
And, as Hello Korio points out, there is an unreliable narrator thing going on—and it’s the kind I LIKE, where the narrator is unreliable to THEMSELVES in a way where YOU start thinking “Wait…wait a minute here…” and feel smart for noticing. The book gradually REVEALED ITSELF to me as a totally different book than I’d thought it was, and I felt amazed by it, and I enjoyed the whole thing, and I liked everyone, and I want MORE BOOKS ABOUT THESE PEOPLE.
I went into this book not knowing what it was about – it was a book club pick. I also loved it and everyone else in the group did too. I have been recommending it to anyone who will listen over the past year!
I loved this book so much, having experienced very similar feelings as you beforehand.
Once I started, I devoured it and bought copies as presents for several friends.
May I recommend Away With the Penguins by Hazel Prior if you’ve not read that yet?
I just searched forAway with the Penguins on my library site. FYI the American/Canadian title is Hiw Veronica Saved the Penguins. It took. Little searching for me to figure that out!
Oh dear! Away with the fairies is a UK saying for someone who is distracted, in a dream world, and I imagine the title is a play on that and wouldn’t work across th pond!
I absolutely loved this book. Like you, I could not find the magic in Evvie Drake at all. I am lukewarm on Ove and Britt-Marie, such that I haven’t picked up any of his other books even though the covers always entice me and I didn’t hate those two or anything – just was not entirely drawn in. But Eleanor Oliphant was the one that scratched a very specific book itch for me. I might need to give it a re-read soon.
I agree with your Elinor assessment completely. Only, I listened to it as an audiobook and I thought it added so much to the story. So, if your library does audiobooks, consider checking it out!
I was put off by her name, too. Like, will this be cutesy? And contrived? I also loved it. Very, very good read. With my kids being older, I’m finding more time to read – specifically I’ve joined by alumnae book club. So fun. I am finding that I really prefer non-fiction. ‘The Boys in the Boat’ is my new all time favorite.
Glad you finally decided to read it.
I love this book so much too. While we all wait and hope for Gail Honeyman to release the sequel, I also wanted to recommend this book on audio. If you enjoy a good, subtle Scottish accent, the audio book is worth it for that experience alone.
Good point about the audiobook – this was the first book I ever listened to and the reader was lovely. I now do a mix of audio and regular so I have something to listen to when I’m doing chores, etc. Or if something is available quicker on audio and I need to finish a book for my club I’ll do that version. Curious if you listen at all Swistle?
No, I haven’t gotten into audio books.
I find Audiobooks good for insomnia. Something I’ve read a bunch of times before, with a good narrator. Good for giving my 3am weasel brain something else to focus on enough to fall back asleep. For me I like quite wordy pop classics – Kim, Sherlock Holmes, Jane Austen, Patrick O’Brien, Agatha Christie. And my highs school fave Georgette Heyer. Typically they get good narrators, and lots of description and a wry turn of voice.
LOVED this book as well. Interesting that the cover & the name also put me off. I had it on hold at the library as some one had recommended to me, but each time it came up I passed it by. Once I started it, I was telling everyone they have to read it! Hope there is another book coming soon from this author!
I loved this book. It made me sob uncontrollably as I stayed up reading until 2am on a work night(and I’m an asleep by 11 kind of person). It related to my work in child welfare and the feelings that the kids I encounter go through. Definitely recommend.
I also really loved this book! I picked it up at the library because I liked the cover and title, and LOVED it.
SAME; right down to the Fredrik Backman.
Have you read: the pilgrimage of Harold Fry or Where’d you go Bernadette? Both remind me so much of Ove and Eleanor Oliphant. Evie Drake was more of a romance than what I would term an “onion book” which these definitely are (lots of layers)
I really liked Where’d You Go Bernadette? I’ve been dismissing Eleanor Oliphant for the same reasons as everyone else, but this encourages me to give it a go.
I was about to say “The Pilgrimage of Harold Fry” but you beat me to it! I second that recommendation wholeheartedly though.
OK so you have perfectly encapsulated all of the reasons why I’ve chosen not to read this book in the face of many people recommending it to me down to your casting of Zoe Deschanel or Maggie Gyllenhaal and Chris O’Dowd. I will overcome my hesitations relating to the cover, the name of the book, and the summary and give this a whirl!
This is EXACTLY why I haven’t read this book (sometimes I am in the mood for chic lit, or what cosmo used to call beach reads, but I haven’t been lately, and I had filed it in with that category)
I did not like this book. As a child of an alcoholic, I found it very triggering. Because the shit that Mommy pulled was the same shit that my Dad would pull when he was on a bender.
I love your casting, it sounds exactly right (I haven’t read the book). Now I want more Swistle Casts the Movie Version, and more Swistle Corrects the Names. Casting has always seemed like a really fun job except for having to deal with all the Hollywood types. So, maybe not fun.
Ooh, would love if someone would “recast” this – who would actually play the leads in a movie version?
Toni Collette and John C. Reilly?
This was a book club pick and I DID NOT expect to like it and in fact spent the first half angrily texting my friend about how much I hate the “autistic/ neurodivergent person struggles to interact in society” trope and THEN. THEN it got good and OMG, I loved it. The dawning realizations about her past, omg.
And I have JUST jumped on the Fredrik Backman bandwagon in a MAJOR way! My book club read Ove, but I refused to read it because it sounded so annoying (why yes, I AM a delight to have in book club!), then my friend recommended Beartown, and I didn’t read it either because hockey, ew. BUT THEN, my friend recommended Anxious People and compared it to Bel Canto which is one of my very faves, so I bought it and read it in a week and HOLY CRAP, it is SO GOOD! And then I devoured Beartown, which is good, but not as good as Anxious People.
I read this book when I was very newly postpartum, and the “twist” ending (which, in my sleep deprived state, I did not see coming) Messed Me Up. To the point where I quit reading fiction. So, maybe don’t read it if your brain is confused, emotional, and panicking like I was.
I may need to try again just based on your recommendation plus the comments. I got it from the library and read for maybe 15 minutes before thinking “this is not for me”…so I just put it down. But reading all this makes me want to try again!
I remember reading – without really knowing anything about it – and liking it about a year or two ago (who knows anymore? Time is elastic these days). I don’t specifically remember any incident that was bad/traumatic to children (which means I probably read it three years ago). But I remember enough that I would recommend it. And I’m glad you liked it!
This is completely absurd but I (literally actually) just came to your website with the express purpose of searching to see if you had ever reviewed this book. And here you have! on the very day that I started listening to it on Audible and came to check to see if you’d read/reviewed it and found it as special as I do!
I agree that the cover and copy are completely offputting and not reflective of what is actually worth reading in Eleanor Oliphant, and If I’d read the copy I likely would never have read the book. But too many people have recommended it and it is so funny and heartbreaking and illuminating and something special about it. It is not chicklit; it is dark and quirky, and sweet and absurd, and Scottish. I also have to forcefully recommend the audio version – the reader is terrific, does the Glaswegian and not-quite Glaswegian accents and it is a great listening experience. {NB: I’m about 5 hours in after a long drive today and haven a ways to go. Will get me outside and walking the dog early tomorrow!)
I started this book two or three times over the past couple of years and never got past the first two chapters. I finally got it on audio and everyone is right, that narrator is lovely. I felt silly for not seeing the twist coming though.
YES! Spot on review. I was turned off by the same things and didn’t pick it up for SO LONG. Also, Evvie Drake…meh, I do not get the appeal.
There is no one who unwinds a story the way you do. I’m always captivated!
If anyone is curious about the ending like I was, the whole plot is summarised on Wikipedia, with spoilers. Please don’t go looking if you don’t want spoilers!!
Can I just point out to US readers that this book is set in my native UK and that a) the name doesn’t come over as particularly cutsie here (a little, but there are lots of women her age called Eleanor, and Oliphant is a surname that most definitely exists), and b) the cover has been changed. I don’t know if I can add an image to this comment, but my (British) version of the book has a totally different cover: if you do an image search, it’s the one that is whitish, with a very, very basic child-like “drawing” of a house round the title in the middle of the cover. I feel that this cover is much less “chick lit-like” and infinitely more appropriate. I certainly wouldn’t consider this to be “chick lit” in the way, say, Joanna Trollope books are (the infamous “aga sagas”, of which I read many in my 20s and 30s and which I now find insufferable).
I read this book for the book club I’m in (though obviously we haven’t met, or indeed done anything, since January 2020 *sigh*) and it was unanimously liked – an extremely rare occurrence. It’s not a “fluffy”, “easy read” (I mean, yes, it’s “easy to read”, as in, devourable in a single sitting, but its story is much more challenging than most “chick lit”). But I do highly recommend it!
Loved this book & was surprised by the “twist.”
I was wondering about how the name would hit in the UK! I knew a couple of Eleanors when I studied in Lancaster in the fall of 1989 (anecdotal, I know, and I’m probably older than the character Eleanor). It was also intriguing to me that every third guy I met that year was named either Nigel, Simon, Duncan, or Nick — so different from my peers in the US (the land of Daves, Mikes, and Jeffs, heh). I suppose the character Eleanor may have been born in the ’80s. I found this link of popular UK names then: https://www.ukbabynames.com/1980s . Eleanor is #32!
I was going to say the same thing about the cover: my version has matchsticks on the cover that form a house around the title. It definitely changes the feel of the book!
This was a VERY VERY good book, but it left me really a wreck. I guess I am sensitive and often cry in books anyway? But I was a gasping, sobbing, utterly torn-apart-pillow of emotion while reading this book. So, uh, fair warning for other sensitive people!!
Swistle, have you ever read Get a Life, Chloe Brown? Gosh I adored that book. I wonder if you might like it.
I didn’t expect to like it either, but I did.
I loved this book so much! And Frederick! I was sad when I finished it because I wanted to hang out with the characters more:)
Everyone I know loves this book and I hated it to the point where I periodically look for bad reviews because I feel SO ALONE in my hatred, even though I feel like my reasons are completely valid and assumed would be common. I don’t like to yuck anyone’s yum, but if anyone sees this comment and also hated it, please be my friend??