“If someone asks you how you are, you are meant to say FINE. You are not meant to say that you cried yourself to sleep last night because you hadn't spoken to another person for two consecutive days. FINE is what you say.”
Eleanor Oliphant is socially inept, emotionally stunted, and downright delusional. On the verge of her thirtieth birthday, the only comforts in her daily life are her dull routines and secret alcoholism. A woman whose life is lonely, strange, and some would even say borderline pathetic, Eleanor is somehow unaware of the trauma she is carrying around inside, or how deeply it affects her. Her weekend benders are so much a part of her routine, she doesn’t even recognize how deeply troubling her behavior is or what is propelling her self-destruction.
This all changes when an accident involving an elderly gentleman and Raymond, a man from the IT department at her job, sets off a chain of events that finally gets her out of her apartment and head. Eleanor finds herself realizing truths about herself and her life, ushering in an unlikely friendship. Unkempt, cordial, and considerate, Raymond is a sloppy but sobering acquaintance who helps her dig up her demons, come to terms with her trauma, and embrace love as not just a possibility, but a reality.
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine dissects the life of someone who spent many years burying tragedies, but with an unreliable narrator like Eleanor, facts and fiction become easily blurred. She takes things literally, so much so, she often comes across as snobby or smug, until her friendship with Raymond begins to soften her edges. So, when the facts are finally revealed, they have heart-wrenching impact. Woven throughout the story are psychological abuse, physical abuse, and substance abuse, and for this reason, the story can be very uncomfortable and awkward at times, but ultimately heartwarming and uplifting.
“These days, loneliness is the new cancer–-a shameful, embarrassing thing, brought upon yourself in some obscure way. A fearful, incurable thing, so horrifying that you dare not mention it; other people don’t want to hear the word spoken aloud for fear that they might too be afflicted, or that it might tempt fate into visiting a similar horror upon them.”
What I enjoyed most about this novel is its brutal honesty about dealing with tragedy and loneliness. This book reminds you how common trauma is, but also how powerful just one true friend can be in helping you survive it. The care and caution of this story left me with a new appreciation for walking in someone else’s shoes and withholding judgment. What Eleanor discovers by the novel’s close is this: she is significant, she matters, and her life is worth living. It’s the message I hope anyone who reads it will take away and take to heart.
“In the end, what matters is this: I survived.” -Eleanor Oliphant
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by
0 Comments.