Our story is a simple one. Eleanor is the poster girl for loneliness and social isolation caused by having a frightful childhood resulting in a truly traumatic event (no spoiler : a house fire). Eleanor is 30 and has zero friends, less than zero family, a poorly paid job, doesn’t speak to her co-workers, doesn’t even have a cat or a dog or a budgie or a little worm as a pet. Not even a little tiny worm! Show Eleanor has a ridiculously pompous conversational style. So unfamiliar with normal human interaction is Eleanor that she has not realised that most people do not want to be spoken to as if they are in a posh drawing room in the 1950s. It’s like she has lived without tv or radio or newspapers or magazines or anything. Example number one : “Let us retire to an inn or public house, Raymond – a quiet one – and please, allow me to buy you some beer in recompense for this wasted evening.” Example two : “You don’t need to stay long – just show face; have a cup of tea, eat a sausage roll – you know the drill.” Said Raymond. “Well I hope they’ve at least got a high meat content and friable pastry, “ I said. Example three: when she gets a cat (oops, spoiler!) she says : I will assume the mantle of care… This creature will be looked after assiduously. Example four : “You’re a good worker, Eleanor,” he said. “How long has it been now – eight years?” “Nine,” I said. “Nine years, and you’ve never had a day off sick, never used all your annual leave. That’s dedication, you know. It’s not easy to find these days.” “It’s not dedication, “ I said. “I simply have a very robust constitution and no one to go on holiday with.” Yes, it’s quite funny, but now, come on Gail Honeyman, no one is as loopy or brusque or unaware as that. Even Eleanor would know her remark was inappropriate, embarrassing, too much information – even if she meant it to be funny, which she didn’t, because, like any Vulcan, she has no sense of humour. She is the source of the humour but never understands why anyone is laughing. It did occur to me that Eleanor was somewhere on the autism spectrum but that is never alluded to in the novel. Has Gail Honeyman created an Asperger Syndrome character without realising it or is she just playing Eleanor for some pretty easy laughs? As well as not knowing how real people talk to each other, Eleanor has no knowledge of popular culture. She has not heard of Laurel and Hardy (“the film was about a fat, clever man and a thin, stupid man who’d joined the Foreign Legion. They were patently unsuited to it”) ; and yet she namedrops J D Salinger and the Unabomber. She doesn’t know what parking meters are : “I’ll need to run, Eleanor – the car’s on the meter and you know what those wardens are like if you go a minute over.” I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about but I let it pass. As you see there are some nice comedy moments. Here’s another favourite : we all know about product placement on tv and in movies. How about reverse-product placement? This is where you aggressively badmouth a specific item quite gratuitously. Eleanor is observing someone else’s basket of purchases in a supermarket : Eggs, bacon, orange juice and Nurofen tablets. I had to stop myself from leaning forward and explaining that he was wasting his money – this branded non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug was in fact ibuprofen 200 mg, the generic version of which was readily available for sale at perhaps one-quarter of the price. For 70% of the time this novel is gentle comedy, of the sort you can find in sitcoms like Not Going Out or The Vicar of Dibley if the Vicar had a brain injury. But then begins the process of Eleanor thawing out and assuming a more “normal” shape. The great thing about this novel now emerges. This novel believes in ordinary human kindness as the thing which can save us, and not romantic love, and that is a great message which is very rarely heard. But the normalising of Eleanor has some disturbing aspects. Quite often it’s like a rerun of Georgy Girl, the folksy hit by The Seekers from 1966. Hey there, Georgy girl Swingin' down the street so fancy-free Nobody you meet could ever see the loneliness there - inside you Hey there, Georgy girl Look at all the boyfriends you don’t get Never had a real one yet, just look at the clothes you wear You're always window shopping but never stopping to buy Just shed those dowdy feathers and fly - a little bit And the dowdy feathers are indeed shed – cue humorous sketches involving bikini waxes, new hairdos and new clothes. “But Miss Oliphant… you’re beautiful!” is almost said by at least two characters. Well. I absolutely don’t want to kick this novel down the cellar steps and have it look back up at me all begrimed with cobwebs and sing "Where is Love?" through big blobby tears. I love the gospel of ordinary human kindness here, even though it’s wrapped up in some fairly disgraceful looksism and evangelical therapyspeak towards the end. I argued myself up down and sideways about Eleanor Oliphant and finally copped out with a rueful three stars. This is a nice novel. I should be nice to it.  Sign into Goodreads to see if any of your friends have read Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine. What mental illness does Eleanor Oliphant have?She has no friends, an unhealthy relationship with alcohol, and a traumatic past. She could be autistic, have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and suffer from depression as well. But although this book deals with many sad and dark topics, it is also a story about friendship, hope, and self-healing. Is Eleanor Oliphant autistic?And while it's of note that the author says Eleanor is definitely not autistic, I don't think that's the end of the discussion. (What an author says about a book doesn't always match up with the reader experience, and sometimes the truth of the matter seems to lay heavier with the reader(s).) Is Eleanor Oliphant worth reading?Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine is well worth the read. Telling a story of a woman shedding the darkness of her past and trying to find a way in the world is all this book is about. And it's very well written! Gail Honeyman does a fantastic job of pulling at your heartstrings but lacks the skill of romance. Is Eleanor Oliphant spicy?There is an instance of British profanity. There don't appear to be any sex scenes; there is mention of a women's party where they are looking at spicy gadgets. |
