Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

Eleanor Oliphant is not completely fine in Gail Honeyman's novel Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. Sure, the title tells you she's fine and Eleanor herself will tell you she is fine; lots of people have a harder life than she does. After all, she has always- well, almost always- had access to enough food to eat, a warm, safe roof over her head, and clean water to drink. She'll be the first to point out that millions of people around the world can't say that is true for them. And yet from the very beginning the reader knows there is something truly horrible and not at all fine in Eleanor's past. First of all, she tells us she has a disfiguring scar on her face, the result of a terrible childhood burn. She also has a job that she doesn't enjoy, but took gratefully at a time when she had been severely injured by an ex-boyfriend. And Eleanor's social skills leave much to be desired, the result of never really having normal interactions with other people. No, Eleanor Oliphant certainly isn't completely fine.

Very early in the book we learn about the appalling relationship Eleanor has with her mother:

Mummy has always told me that I am ugly, freakish, vile. She's done so from my earliest years, even before I acquired my scars.

Eleanor talks about how her life hasn't been perfect, but that she's had what she's needed. She is utterly pragmatic about her situation. Her council apartment, arranged by her social worker, is plain and furnished with donations and thrift store finds. I really enjoyed the background she imagines for the lackluster kitchen table she has come to own, from the newlywed couple who may have picked it out at a department store, through various owners, and then given to charity.

They gave it to me, unloved, unwanted, irreparably damaged. Also the table.

The reader is given a real sense of just how burdensome Eleanor's life has been. This has led her to become rather pragmatic and practical, leaving emotion and sentiment out of her decisions. While attending the funeral of a new friend and contemplating her own eventual demise, she ruminates on this interesting post-mortal possibility:

I think I might like to be fed to zoo animals. It would be both environmentally friendly and a lovely treat for the larger carnivores. Could you request that? I wondered. I made a mental note to write to the WWF in order to find out.

I did try to find the answer to this question as I was writing this blog post, but I have thus far been unable to find any helpful information. I'll be sure to let you know if I finally get the answer. Personally, I think this idea is pretty ingenious. Eleanor's reasoning is quite logical and I like to think of myself as quite sensible as well.

There were so many parts of this book that I enjoyed, but I'm not sure I can say I really liked this book. It is a little dark and the adversity that Eleanor must overcome in her life is so sad and distressing. The reader is asked to suffer through the remembering of it with Eleanor and I found that painful. Also, I really wanted to like Eleanor, but her personality at the beginning is quite unlikable. I appreciated the need for her to start off somewhat rough so that the reader could watch her grow, but it gave the book a slow start for me. The characters with whom Eleanor surrounds herself, however, are absolutely lovely and exactly the brightness this book needed.