Stephanie Sullivan: Review - Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine

TITLE: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine

RATING: ★★★★

Summary (from Goodreads): No one’s ever told Eleanor that life should be better than fine.

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 social interactions, 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 on the sidewalk, the three become the kinds of friends who rescue one another from the lives of isolation they have each been living. And it is Raymond’s big heart that will ultimately help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one.

Soon to be a major motion picture produced by Reese Witherspoon, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is the smart, warm, and uplifting story of an out-of-the-ordinary heroine whose deadpan weirdness and unconscious wit make for an irresistible journey as she realizes. . .

The only way to survive is to open your heart.

REVIEW: Wow...where to begin? First off, let me just say that knowing this book is Gail Honeyman’s debut novel really blows me away. Although the story lagged a little in the beginning, it didn’t take long before I was completely sucked in and anxious to learn more about Eleanor’s life. I will admit it was quite a struggle for me to like this character in the first few chapters. (She reminded me a lot of Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory television series, with her very blunt and unapologetic remarks.) But my attitude softened toward her as the author began unraveling the details of her horrific childhood. I should point out there were many times when Miss Honeyman’s grammar threw me, and I’m not ashamed to admit I had to keep a dictionary on hand to look up a few words I’d never seen before. LOL. Also, and I’m not including any spoilers, but I have to say I was very surprised with the ending. Overall, I’m glad I got to know Eleanor Oliphant, and I would happily recommend this book to everyone I know.