Tuesday 6 February 2018

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine - Gail Honeyman



I've heard so much lately about this book, but who or what is Eleanor Oliphant? Well, she's a young lady working in the office of a graphic design company. Eleanor is a bit of a loner, certainly not part of the 'in crowd' at work, far from it. She's very intelligent, but when it comes to social skills, her naivety is often funny and almost always painful. Early on in the book, there are hints of some kind of terrible trauma in her childhood which has obviously impacted on her adult life. The details slowly emerge, but it's not until the end that the full horror of her early life is revealed.

Eleanor strives to be normal. She wants to love and be loved and she thinks she knows what to do to achieve just that. When she catches sight of Johnnie Lomand, she knows that they are destined to be together and she hatches a plan to achieve her goal. Unfortunately, Eleanor learns that reality isn't quite that straightforward and things don't exactly go the way she had hoped.

Eleanor's adventure was full of unexpected events. I found her story totally captivating. I willed her on to do the right thing, make the right decision, flinching when she failed and at one point I even feared for her life.

I was totally absorbed in this book. I couldn't stop thinking about Eleanor and she was on my mind way after I finished the last page. Meeting Eleanor was a wonderful, unique experience and one I shall always treasure. I think she found a little spot in my heart that hadn't been touched before. She made me laugh and she made me cry and this is the book that I'll be buying as presents and recommending to all other family and friends. This book is pretty special.