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    Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine: A Novel
    Audiobook11 hours

    Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine: A Novel

    Written by Gail Honeyman

    Narrated by Cathleen McCarron

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    "Move over, Ove (in Fredrik Backman's A Man Called Ove)-there's a new curmudgeon to love." --Booklist (starred review)

    "Eleanor Oliphant is a truly original literary creation: funny, touching, and unpredictable. Her journey out of dark shadows is absolutely gripping." --Jojo Moyes, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Me Before You

    "Deft, compassionate and deeply moving--Honeyman's debut will have you rooting for Eleanor with every turning page." --Paula McClain, New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Wife and Circling the Sun

    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.

    Smart, warm, uplifting, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine is the 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. 

    Editor's Note

    Find your place…

    This book follows an extraordinary protagonist as she slowly breaks through social fears to find her own happy ending. Witty and delightful, this novel hits home for anyone who’s ever felt even a little out of place.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateMay 9, 2017
    ISBN9781524749699
    Unavailable
    Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine: A Novel
    Author

    Gail Honeyman

    Gail Honeyman’s debut novel, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, won the Costa First Novel Award 2017, and has been longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Desmond Elliott Prize. As a work in progress, it was shortlisted for the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize. Since publication, translation rights have sold to over thirty territories worldwide and Reese Witherspoon has optioned it for film. Gail lives in Glasgow.

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    Reviews for Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine

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    • 5/5
      I loved this book. Eleanor’s frankness had so much humor to me, and it made me think of how we talk and act in daily life and how much of it is unnecessary. I do understand much of it was supposed to be sad, but it really hit me in the right way and I enjoyed it so much. Already feeling nostalgic for it, so it will probably be one I re-read every few years.
    • 4/5
      The setting is modern times Glasgow. Eleanor Oliphant is 29 years old doing billing in an office. Very early on in the novel, it is revealed some form of trauma has happened to her. I waited patiently for the onion to be peeled, which turns out to be an accurate analogy. Eleanor is a bit annoying and prickly to your senses, as she initially is entirely difficult to relate; why would she do, think, and be a certain way ran through my mind. She has never learned the social norms. (The early pages are easy to discourage the reader.) Then her life story is slowly revealed, and your eyes start to dampen with the onion effect trickling in. Towards the end, that last unveil is full on onion effect. Finally, as you are sautéing that onion, you realize she’s not so annoying, that you understand her and maybe even like her, just as I like my onion sautéed. And that’s the full onion effect of this book. The plot and writing style are pretty straightforward. Once in a while, it’s nice to read a heartwarming book of someone overcoming trauma. The final bit is somewhat rushed, and I wanted more explanations. Then again, even I was ready for the book to be done, so the rushed reveal is ‘Completely Fine’, too.Some Quotes:On damages to a person – both inside and outside:“Even the circus freak side of my face – my damaged half – was better than the alternative, which would have meant death by fire. I didn’t burn to ashes. I emerged from the flames like a little phoenix. I ran my fingers over the scar tissues, caressing the contours. I didn’t burn, Mummy, I thought. I walked through the fire and I lived.There are scars on my heart, just as thick, as disfiguring as those on my face. I know they’re there. I hope some undamaged tissue remains, a patch through which love can come in and flow out. I hope.”On loneliness:“…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……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…”
    • 5/5
      Unique story with a broken but endearing main character. I couldn't help but root for her. A light and very enjoyable novel.
    • 4/5
      For fans of "The Rosie Project," this debut book about a twenty nine year old woman content to just "exist" will charm many readers. Eleanor Oliphant has a routine; she works, does the crossword puzzle at lunch, talks to her mother on Wednesday, goes to the store on Friday and drinks vodka all weekend by herself. There is no variation, there is no fun, there is no adventure. That is until she meets a bumbling young man in the IT department, Raymond. First he fixes her computer and then he proceeds to turn her life upside down. From the tiniest things; going for lunch, helping out an elderly man, actually talking to her, these things shake up her routine enough and start a domino effect to actually get Eleanor to take a good hard look at her life and find some meaning in it. Her standoffish attitude, weirdness, and inability to have a meaningful relationship with anyone make it hard for people to approach her, but Raymond seems to be doing a pretty good job. Cute, but at times dark and real. Not one I would personally re-read, but still good nonetheless.
    • 4/5
      Eleanor Oliphant likes to keep herself to herself. She is content to go to work, dressed every day in the same clothes, and to stay at home at the weekend, drinking vodka, until the cycle begins again on Monday. Aged twenty-nine, she has no friends and no meaningful relationships; at work she is regarded as a weirdo. But during a rare night out, her eye falls on the handsome singer of a local band, and she decides that he is the man for her. So she sets out to make small but significant changes to her life.I can see why the book has garnered rave reviews and a host of awards: the author has tackled the difficult themes of child abuse, mental illness and social isolation and made them central to the book's main character, but has done so skilfully and with an easy and humorous touch. There are a lot of truths about today's society hidden inside the book. I couldn't help warming to Eleanor, who is so content to defy everyone's expectations of her and to be just herself, but felt sad for her at the same time, because it's obvious that she avoids looking at her life too closely and prefers to numb her emotions with copious amounts of vodka. And yet I didn't think the novel entirely successful: I found Eleanor's judgemental attitude rather irritating after a while – considering she especially should know how wrong first impressions can be, though I guess no one can blame her – and thought the way the author uses Eleanor's social ineptitude and naivety to take cheap swipes at various conventions and business practices very tiring. I also disagree with how Eleanor is used in socially awkward situations almost as an object of ridicule, with the aim to elicit a chuckle or disbelieving shake of the head from the reader; a person as strong as Eleanor Oliphant doesn't deserve such treatment. From a plot point of view, I found the novel to be fairly predictable, though not without its moments of genuine connection, joy and sadness, and I was very glad to see how Eleanor learns slowly, and through adversity, to turn her life around.It will be interesting to see what Gail Honeyman comes up with next.
    • 5/5
      When we first meet Eleanor she comes across as completely bizarre - an old-fashioned head on young shoulders who has little social interaction with the world. Her work colleagues find her freakish and make little attempt to keep their jibes from her ears, but Eleanor is only concerned with doing her job efficiently, completing the daily crossword at lunchtime and getting through the weekend before she can busy herself with work again.Initially Eleanor appears to be autistic, but as the novel develops we discover that she has zero emotional interaction or support structure in terms of friends or family. She has been alone for so long she misinterprets this survivalist behaviour as self-imposed independence, but through an unexpected event Eleanor gradually has the opportunity to turn herself for the first time towards the warmth of human kindness.Mass market? Definitely. Page-turning? Absolutely.This is not highbrow literature, but if your head is in the place of wanting an absorbing feel-good read with some great characters it ticks all the boxes.4.5 stars - it warms the cockles of your heart.
    • 5/5
      We all know that when anyone describes themselves as feeling “fine” this is usually not the case. In this truly remarkable debut novel, it soon becomes clear to the reader that however comfortable Eleanor Oliphant says feels in the life she has created for herself, she is anything but “completely fine”. She is thirty years old, a self-contained young woman whose routine never varies. She wears the same outfit for work every day, has the same meal deal for lunch and, whilst eating it, always does the cryptic crossword; during her solitary weekends, she has frozen pizza and drinks two bottles of vodka. She has worked for the same firm since leaving university, is good at her job and never takes time off, in fact she doesn’t even take all of her holiday entitlement – little wonder that her boss can rely on her commitment to the job. However, what she is less good at is understanding her colleagues. She feels she has nothing in common with what she regards as their rather frivolous attitudes, both to work and to life in general. Even if she felt in the least inclined to, she isn’t able to join in their more casual interactions because she usually doesn’t have a clue what they are talking about! This means that she is regarded as an eccentric, rather odd character, someone to make fun of and to gossip about. The only one who is inclined to ignore her eccentricities is Raymond, the new technician from the IT department. When he and she stop to help an old man who has collapsed in the street, Eleanor’s world slowly begins to change as she begins to learn different ways of interacting with other people, and gradually starts to come to terms with her past.From the opening page of this unforgettable story I felt immersed in Eleanor’s view of the world. Through the expression of her thoughts, her fears, her beliefs about how she, and other people, should behave and her emerging realisation that there is an alternative to the life of isolation which she is leading, the reader inhabits her world. The gradual uncovering of the horrific events in her past which have shaped her expectations of life make it possible to understand why she thinks and behaves as she does. Her journey towards a more hopeful future was one I felt fully engaged with as I became caught up in her struggles to negotiate a new way of interacting with the people she encounters. This more benign world is one which, in so many ways, feels alien to her and yet it is one which feels increasingly caring and comforting as she opens herself up to new experiences. There were moments when her social ineptitude was hilarious and I found myself laughing out loud at her confusions and assumptions. However, the next moment I would find myself in floods of tears, watching her as she struggled to cope. At times this roller-coaster of emotions felt heart-breaking, almost too much to bear, but Eleanor’s powerful voice and the painful emotional journey she was prepared to undertake made it impossible for me put this book down, that would have felt like abandoning her as she faced her journey of self-discovery.The author’s exploration of the effects of loneliness, a central thread in the story, was masterly. As the layers of Eleanor’s past were exposed, it became clear how brutal, life-changing events during her childhood had had such a devastating impact on her capacity to form close relationships, to be able to either identify, or to acknowledge, her own feelings and needs, or to recognise those of other people. The reader is forced to question whether Eleanor is in fact incapable of developing socially acceptable interactions, or whether her inability to engage is due to the fact that she just doesn’t know how to. Her fractured, dysfunctional family and years of abuse have made it difficult for her to trust and have led to her living such an isolated life. After all, if we don’t have good role models and learn how to mix with people, how can we be expected to develop social skills? At one point in the story Eleanor reflects on the pleasure she experienced when she was addressed by her first name by someone in a call centre. The sadness underlying that reflection was painful to listen to and has continued to echo in my head ever since I finished the book. It makes me wonder how many Eleanors there are in our society whose voices are never listened to or heard. A real strength in this character-driven story is the fact that, whilst it is acknowledged that some people are capable of cruelty, many more are inclined to be kind and caring, to want to reach out and make contact with others. This sentiment is not conveyed in any unrealistic, saccharine-sweet way, but shines through in the many small acts of thoughtfulness which Eleanor encounters, and gradually learns to reciprocate, as she begins her journey to find a more comfortable place for herself in the world. I loved the fact that, although Eleanor began to change, there was no instant, magical transformation. Her journey was a struggle and, even when life was looking so much better for her, there were still traces of the old patterns which had shaped her life so far – many of which were, in fact, quite endearing! Another catalyst in Eleanor’s transformation was when she became obsessed with beginning a relationship with a pop star. This young man had caught her eye because he spoke and dressed well (although it was clear that he was otherwise patently unsuitable!) and she thought her hyper-critical “Mummy” would approve of him as a future son in law! For a short time I feared that the author was going to use romance as a way for Eleanor to find happiness but it soon became clear that she was far wiser than that in her portrayal of her characters. Even the endearing, thoughtful and caring Raymond, who persists in his efforts to befriend Eleanor, who dresses rather scruffily, eats and talks with his mouth open and certainly would not earn “Mummy’s” approval, is not portrayed as offering romance. Instead, what he does offer is reliable kindness, tolerance, acceptance and caring, thereby demonstrating the power of platonic friendship. Their relationship works because, whilst not being blind to each other’s flaws, they come to respect and care for each other. I find it truly remarkable that this is Gail Honeyman’s debut novel; the quality of her writing and her ability to create convincing characters is quite breath-taking at times. It therefore comes as no surprise to me that the book has won the 2017 Costa First Novel Award – in my opinion it would be a worthy winner of the overall Costa Book of the Year Award! This is such a wise novel, full of warmth and humanity; a powerful combination of sadness, loneliness, devastating, unsettling darkness and yet with a convincing message of optimism. This is much more a “coming to life” rather than a “coming of age” story and I know it is one I’ll be very tempted to re-read. There were times when the essential humanity in this story-telling reminded me of Fredrik Backman’s A Man Called Ove so this is a book which I’m sure will appeal to anyone who enjoyed that story. In some ways this has been a really difficult review to write because of a fear that I won’t be able to do justice to the quality of either the writing or the story-telling so I hope that what I have written will at least persuade you to read this wonderful book for yourself!
    • 5/5
      Eleanor is kind of an odd duck. She isn't good at socializing, she doesn't understand why people do certain things and she enjoys a very strict schedule. It kind of discombobulates her when the schedule is disrupted. Then Raymond enters her life as the IT guy at work and as they are both leaving work, an older man, Sam, collapses. Eleanor doesn't want to get involved but Raymond drags her into helping Sam. This encounter soon pulls Eleanor and Raymond into an unlikely friendship and makes Eleanor start to question why people do certain things. At first I thought Eleanor might be on the autism spectrum then I decided maybe she was raised without much social interaction. I really felt for Eleanor and loved her simplicity and growth along the way. Very interesting characters. I cared for all of them. They were very likable characters. There were different sad parts that pulled at my heart and other times that made me smile and laugh. This is well worth the time to read. I think it will also help some people understand what others go through when a tragedy changes their lives at a young age.

      I received a copy from Penguin Random House First To Read Program.
    • 5/5
      On the surface, Eleanor is certainly an odd character. She lives alone and keeps to herself. She avoids social interactions with her co-workers and doesn't seem to have any fashion sense. She is very socially awkward and has no friends. But after an encounter with a new co-worker and a chance incident on the street, things suddenly begin to shift.This is one of those novels that you see everywhere and that virtually everyone seems to enjoy. I considered reading it earlier, but I mistook it for light chick lit and wasn't overly eager to get my hands on it. But then it was chosen as my book club's selection, so I thought, why not? This novel is a mixed bag. It's light, but with a lot of serious undertones. Eleanor is not immediately what I'd consider an endearing character, but she certainly grows on you. There were some hilarious moments in this book that had me cracking up repeatedly. Psychologically, there's a lot going on with Eleanor. She exhibits a lot of Asperger tendencies, but she's also been a victim of childhood trauma, so she's hard to classify, and as readers, we tend to want or try to do that. Suffice to say, she's quirky. But her story is a good one, and this book deserves the attention it's received. I can understand why it's captured the hearts of so many readers.
    • 4/5
      Surprisingly good and engaging. I thought the first-person narrative was really convincing, and able to get me in the mindset and understand her perspective really well. I would not call this a funny book but there were certainly moments that made me chuckle, and several moments where I could identify with her perspective on other people. This really would be a great book to discuss in a book group.
    • 5/5
      Eleanor Oliphant is a social misfit. She lives a life of isolation but decides to step out of her comfort zone and makes friends with Raymond. I found this book charming but humorous. There are lots of laugh-out-loud moments. Narrated by Eleanor and author's debut but very well-written. The ending is heartwarming with lots of hope for Eleanor's future. Recommended for those who love feel-good books.
    • 5/5
      Eleanor Oliphant lives a very proscribed and ordered life: she wears the same outfit every day, eats the same food every day, and on Friday evening she buys a frozen pizza and two bottles of vodka to get her through the weekend. Once a week, she has a phone call with her mother. As long as she doesn't let herself think too much about the traumatic events in her past, such as the fire that left her with a scar on her face, she's fine. Completely fine. Things begin to change for Eleanor after three unrelated events: she attends a concert and develops a crush on a handsome musician, her work computer contracts a virus and must be fixed by scruffy IT guy Raymond, and she and Raymond witness an elderly man have a fall in the street outside their office and come to his aid. Suddenly, Eleanor is having interactions with new people, gaining new perspectives, and starting to come to terms with her past.I really appreciated the author's light-handed touch with Eleanor's character development. She's clever yet extremely socially inept; I could occasionally (uncomfortably) relate. There's a lovely balance between humor and pathos throughout the book. Though the focus is tightly on Eleanor, many secondary characters have a nice depth to them. I highly recommend this book, particularly the audiobook version, as the narrator conveys the Glaswegian accent beautifully in a way that my imagination would have entirely failed to do.I read this one for book club, and I think it will provoke some really good discussion, so I'm looking forward to hearing what other members have to say.
    • 5/5
      "I was fine, perfectly fine on my own, but I needed to keep Mummy happy, keep her calm so she would leave me in peace. A boyfriend—a husband?—might just do the trick. It wasn’t that I needed anyone. I was, as I previously stated, perfectly fine." Eleanor Oliphant most certainly is not fine. Unless, maybe, Honeyman has read Louise Penny’s brilliant mysteries, among them “Dead Cold” (also published as “A Fatal Grace”) and actually means FINE (she even uses this term in all-caps herself) which stands for “F’ed up, Insecure, Neurotic and Egotistical”. That’s part of what Eleanor is. I’ve read this book is about loneliness and, yes, it certainly is but it’s so much more – depression, childhood abuse and recovery. Eleanor goes to work, trying to avoid any non-essential contact with her co-workers or, in fact, any human being for that matter. She relies completely on her routines (“I sat down and watched television alone, like I do Every. Single. Night.”) and abhors any deviations. Whenever she starts to actually experience feelings, she drowns them in Vodka. Suddenly and by pure chance, Raymond enters her life and Eleanor realises there should be more in life than routine. This is not a romance, though. It’s not a “funny” book as such either – even though it has plenty of humour. “After much reflection on the political and sociological aspects of the table, I have realized that I am completely uninterested in food. My preference is for fodder that is cheap, quick and simple to procure and prepare, whilst providing the requisite nutrients to enable a person to stay alive.” The humour is always laced with Eleanor’s immense pain from which she is hiding; albeit not very successfully because you can’t “escape or undo” your past, nor can you just shed it: “The past could neither be escaped nor undone. After all these weeks of delusion, I recognized, breathless, the pure, brutal truth of it. I felt despair and nausea mingled inside me, and then that familiar black, black mood came down fast.” We are all defined by our past; what was done to us by our parents, by siblings, other relatives or other people we love(d). Since none of us are perfect, it follows that everyone will at least make mistakes. I made and still make mistakes raising my kids. I’m just trying to make my mistakes with as much love as possible. Most of us can deal with what we experienced; some of us – yours truly included – just like Eleanor need help dealing with our past and we must learn to live with ourselves and our demons. This “universal brokenness” is probably the reason this book is deservedly as popular as it is: We can relate to Eleanor because we at least recognise a few of her “eccentricities”. The consistent way she narrates her own story, her complete, disarming honesty even at the expense of her own dignity at times, makes her human. The more Eleanor tells us about herself, the more she lets small remarks slip that are revealing with respect to her abusive "Mummy" and the one incident that forever changed her life. The further we get the bolder Eleanor becomes and she gets ready to face the truths she needs to confront to get better and once she’s crossed the Rubicon, there’s no holding her back: “I was ready. Bring out your dead.” Until that point, though, it’s a struggle for Eleanor and it was sometimes a struggle for me because I so badly wanted her to get better and at one point, I realised I rooted so much for her I just had to have a happy ending or be crushed. How can someone survive a mother like Eleanor’s? The conversations with her are written in a way that gave me the creeps; they start out relatively normal, harmless and even – in a few instances – positively... “You wouldn’t understand, of course, but the bond between a mother and child, it’s . . . how best to describe it . . . unbreakable. The two of us are linked forever, you see—same blood in my veins that’s running through yours.” … it already started sounding slightly weird here but it quickly escalates much further... “You grew inside me, your teeth and your tongue and your cervix are all made from my cells, my genes. Who knows what little surprises I left growing inside there for you, which codes I set running? Breast cancer? Alzheimer’s? You’ll just have to wait and see. You were fermenting inside me for all those months, nice and cozy, Eleanor. However hard you try to walk away from that fact, you can’t, darling, you simply can’t. It isn’t possible to destroy a bond that strong.” Eleanor “fermented" inside her mother – what a horrible thought! And, yes, even such a deprecating bond cannot completely be destroyed. We just have to learn to live with it. That Eleanor is still a functioning – albeit damaged – human being after all that makes us admire her and her humanity. All the more so as we only learn the entire horrible truth bit by bit (“I was normal-sized and normal-faced (on one side, anyway).”): In her developing companionship with Raymond, Eleanor slowly realises there’s more to life and seeing how she works her way back into a more “normal” life is moving and enjoyable. It’s never kitschy or soppy because her honesty (and often: bluntness) is very refreshing. Especially due to the fact that she knows full well that she’s not really fine: “You’re a bit mental, aren’t you?” she said, not in the least aggressively, but slurring her words somewhat. It was hardly the first time I’d heard this. “Yes,” I said, “yes, I suppose I am.” At other times I wanted to shout at her, e. g. when she decides a random good-looking guy will save her. By means of a partner, she intends to “reassemble”, to reinvent herself and make the “Eleanor pieces” fit – which can’t ever work that way. You might not like Eleanor, maybe even loathe her for her constant denial, for her “weakness” or maybe you love her for her strength and her ultimate refusal to give up. Either way, you cannot be indifferent to her because she feels completely real. She could be your weird colleague, your rarely-seen neighbour. All of this combined with Honeyman’s wonderful writing style and the ending that is exactly as it should be won this book a place among my favourites of all time. Only a few days ago I read “Kaffee und Zigaretten” by Ferdinand von Schirach who wrote in that book “We're looking for the books written for us.”. I couldn’t agree more. P.S.: To my Maria: If you ever read this, SvF, please know that I’m deeply grateful for all your help and let me quote Eleanor herself: “I felt very calm. “Essentially, though, in all the ways that matter . . . I’m fine now. Fine,” I repeated, stressing the word because, at last, it was true.”
    • 2/5
      Parts of the book are fine, but I didn't love it. The characters are cartoonish, and the story is cliched. If you read chapter one, the rest of the book follows exactly the tedious line you would expect. Honeyman doesn't take any risks, there are no surprises.
    • 3/5
      * Winner of the Costa First Novel Award * No.1 Sunday Times bestseller and No.1 New York Times bestseller * Soon to be a major motion picture produced by Reese Witherspoon `Funny, touching and unpredictable' Jojo Moyes Eleanor Oliphant has learned how to survive - but not how to live Eleanor Oliphant leads a simple life. She wears the same clothes to work every day, eats the same meal deal for lunch every day and buys the same two bottles of vodka to drink every weekend. Eleanor Oliphant is happy. Nothing is missing from her carefully timetabled life. Except, sometimes, everything. One simple act of kindness is about to shatter the walls Eleanor has built around herself. Now she must learn how to navigate the world that everyone else seems to take for granted - while searching for the courage to face the dark corners she's avoided all her life. Change can be good. Change can be bad. But surely any change is better than... fine? `Heartwrenching and wonderful' Nina Stibbe `Deft, compassionate and moving' Paula McLain `I adored it. Skilled, perceptive, Eleanor's world will feel familiar to you from the very first page. An outstanding debut!' Joanna CannonQuelle: amazon.de
    • 4/5
      Universal appeal for a novel can be rare, but not impossible. Since its debut it is fair to say that I have not heard a critical word against Eleanor Oliphant, so this novel must fall into the ‘rare’ category. And our group’s opinion agrees with this assessment. Everyone found Eleanor endearing, funny, sad and ‘completely fine’!We all felt empathy for Eleanor and her traumatized childhood. It was discussed as to whether she was on the Asperger spectrum or if her behaviour was simply due to earlier damage. The author balanced up the humour and tragedy well, for although there was some very gloomy issues surrounding Eleanor’s story, the read was positive and uplifting in many ways.We enjoyed the relationship between Eleanor and Raymond. So much so that we were willing to wait patiently while it slowly grew throughout the book, with the odd detour and stumbling block. This sort of slow storyline can be frustrating, but Honeyman does a great job of keeping the reader invested in the characters and their development.We also discussed the issue of fostering and adoption and the isolation that is experienced by so many people today. Eleanor’s story, we are sure, is not so unique as to not be plausible in today’s society.Her transformation was inspiring and entertaining … and surprising in some ways, and an unexpected twist gives Eleanor Oliphant even more substance. Overall, a great read. Don't miss it!
    • 5/5
      What a sweet and lovely story. Pour Elianor was abused as a child and was having a hard time dealing with it. Along comes a gentle frind and a series a good people who helps her out. Recommended.
    • 2/5
      I don't want to be overly harsh but this was a dreadful load of old tripe. Emotionally manipulative and unoriginal Eleanor Oliphant is such an obvious authorial construct that the novel is doomed from the start. She is weighed down with a whole bunch of movie cliches - selective amnesia, forgotten sibling, imaginary correspondent - and a glaringly undiagnosed case of movie autism. She is also a bender-prone, bottle-a-day vodkaholic who just decides to stop. Nothing about her makes sense.

      We are supposed to believe that having been sequestered from the world until the age of 10 followed by years in foster care, school, university and nine years working for a graphic design firm, she has mastered computers, Facebook, Twitter and the internet, but never in her life come across the concept of Jeremy Clarkson or SpongeBob SquarePants... because it's funnier that way. Nothing holds together. There is no consistency or integrity to Eleanor's condition. She's not a person, just a device to tell a story about loneliness.

      Because that's all this book really is. It's a story about loneliness. Certainly a worthy subject for a 21st century novel, but there has to be a better way to write it than this cack-handed, curious incident knock-off, puddle of slush.
    • 5/5
      Eleanor Oliphant is not completely fine. She is the survivor of horrific childhood abuse, scarred physically and emotionally. She negotiates life by avoiding human relationships, but her careful world is disrupted when she and a colleague help an old man who collapses by the road. Gratitude and friendship begin to break her shell but that allows childhood memories to resurface, and she doesn’t know if she can survive reliving her past.When I picked this up at the library I was mistakenly expecting a charming, quirky romance. It was so much better than that. It deserved the prizes it won.
    • 5/5
      Audiobook performed by Cathleen McCarron Eleanor Oliphant is a bookkeeper for a design firm in Glasgow. Originally from London, she’s settled here and made a small life for herself. She works, has her own flat, never takes a holiday, and has her routine down pat. Every Friday she stops on her way home to buy a pizza and two litres of vodka. She has the pizza for dinner that night and drinks all the vodka over the weekend, ready to face another week. What a marvelous character-driven novel! I loved Eleanor as much as I was frustrated by her. Her conversations with Mummy gave us clues to the trauma in her past that resulted in the fragile woman she is when we first meet her. She’s socially backward, unable or unwilling to trust, unrealistic about potential love interests, and totally unaware of popular slang or culture. She knows her co-workers poke fun at her, but she also knows she is “completely fine.” And then a new IT support person comes to fix her computer and he strikes up a conversation. I love the way the friendship between Raymond and Eleanor develops. How he introduces her to possibilities, but also accepts her at face value. He recognizes the good person Eleanor is, and helps her to recognize her own potential. THIS is what love is at its most pure. He does not judge or berate, he supports her, he opens new doors but lets her find her way. And he cheers her on. Honeyman gives us some wonderful supporting characters as well: elderly Sammy, hip hairdresser Laura, boss Bob, and the local shopkeeper Mr Dewan. Even if their scenes are small, they are fully developed and add to the richness of the novel, and of Eleanor’s life (though she may not always recognize it).Cathleen McCarron does a fine job of performing the audiobook. I loved her Scottish brogue for Raymond, and the clipped, sometimes confused, tone she used for Eleanor.
    • 5/5
      A well told story, if wrapped up a bit too neatly. The last plot twist was a shocker for me. Kudos to the author. Eleanor Oliphant is a victim of neglect and child abuse who manages to survive her childhood into young adulthood. When the story starts, she has a singular, if very stilted voice and has seemed to shut herself off from human feelings. She goes through the motions of living while medicating herself with vodka at night and on weekends. Until one day, a chance encounter with a coworker and an injured man sets in motion momentous changes for her. I couldn't help rooting for Eleanor, who seems quite stoic when the novel begins. Some of her observations about people made me laugh. Some of the things that happen to Eleanor are profoundly sad. I inhaled this novel in two days. I'd give it five stars, except the author resolves her situation a little too neatly, like a prime time drama. Still, the drama was realistic, and heart-aching.
    • 4/5
      Eleanor Oliphant is most certainly NOT completely fine - there are some very dark monsters in her past that she must confront in order to live a full life. This started out really good, Eleanor is a fascinating character and it was interesting to follow along in how she unravels her past. The ending, however, is highly unlikely (I get that she's damaged and that some things have been suppressed from her memory, but I don't buy that she's so nuts she doesn't know that he mom, whom she talks to on the phone all the time. is actually dead and not really there), and all the terrible things get tied up with a nice red bow. A shame for something with such potential. I like the cat very much.
    • 4/5
      With an interesting main character, and an unexpectedly compelling narrative, I really enjoyed Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine.“I have always taken great pride in managing my life alone. I’m a sole survivor—I’m Eleanor Oliphant. I don’t need anyone else—there’s no big hole in my life, no missing part of my own particular puzzle. I am a self-contained entity. That’s what I’ve always told myself, at any rate.”All that slowly changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, and the elderly Sammy.Somewhat of an unreliable narrator, this character driven story is filtered by Eleanor’s unique perspective, coloured by what is likely a neuroatypical disorder and the experience of repressed trauma. Eleanor evokes both pity and empathy, you can’t help but root for her to break free from her self imposed limits.Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine is a poignant story, dark and yet ultimately uplifting, this is a completely fine novel.
    • 4/5
      Eleanor Oliphant is a beautifully written novel about an odd young woman who works in an office. It is also hysterically funny. As the storyline unfolds, Eleanor's peculiar behavior begins to make sense. Eleanor is smart and good at her low level office, but lives an isolated life and is socially awkward. Once a week she checks in with her abhorrent mother whom the reader is led to believe is behind bars for burning down her house. Eleanor, disfigured from fire, was the only survivor. She has no friends and spends her weekends alone getting drunk. A fellow office mate befriends Eleanor and through kindness and persistence, she lets him slowly into her life. Friendship and human interaction bring out the humanity in Eleanor and allow her to shed some of her demons.
    • 4/5
      Eleanor has a terrible past which has tied her up inside herself. She gradually comes out of her shell to join the world with the aid of a fellow employee and medical emergency in the street.
    • 4/5
      Eleanor Oliphant is a misfit working as a bookkeeper in an office; she seemingly has no family, has no social skills, and is severely scarred on one side of her face. Her weekends are spent watching dull television and drinking vodka. Her life changes, however, when she and a co-worker come across an elderly man who is having a heart attack on the sidewalk. Raymond works in the IT department of the business, is a poor dresser, a constant smoker, and disheveled--all the things that Eleanor dislikes.Their friendship grows as they both become involved with the elderly man and his family. Slowly, the reader is given hints as to Eleanor's past life which must have been so horrendous that she is unable to speak about it. At least once a week she has what seems to be conversations with her mother who seems to despise her.The transformation of Eleanor from her antisocial state is basically the subject of the book. There are several incidents which I found hard to believe and the relationship with Raymond seems too easy at times. Not a bad book; not a totally gripping one either.
    • 4/5
      A very warm book and a very rewarding read. Though lighthearted in tone, it explored some very dark themes: child abuse and the devastating effects it leaves on its victims. This light touch is what I believe diffuses the horror of the basic situation and draws the reader deeper into the story. Basically the narrative focuses more on the 'now' than the 'then' and Eleanor's very quirky perspective on the now of her world is witty and amusing, it's eloquent, often hilarious and occasionally deep. Her take on her world is told convincingly, highlighting some of the foibles and ridiculousness of the modern world. Intelligent, highly articulate verbally but totally inarticulate socially, Eleanor seems unable to sustain any social interaction with her peers. She starts to change after an act of kindness on the part of a new colleague Raymond (helping an old man who collapses on the street) draws her into a series of new encounters and into friendship with R whose support is crucial to her transformation. Now some of these encounters seemed to me a bit sophomoric, but once again that was in keeping with the light approach of the novel to a story of progression from social isolation to connection and of a painful and difficult road to mental health.
    • 4/5
      Eleanor Oliphant is a loner who doesn't socialize with anyone at work. She is socially inept and enjoys her own company and routine. She lives alone but talks to her mother on the phone every week and is dependent on vodka. All this changes when she and one of her co-workers rescue an elderly man after he falls in the street. Gradually she learns how to socialize in spite of her natural tendencies. She also comes to realize that she has suffered from a tragic childhood that she had blocked from her memory and comes out of her shell to become a delightful, social adult. This book has humor and tragedy with wonderful characters who warmed my heart. I recommend it to anyone.
    • 3/5
      There's no doubt that this book is well written and tells a compelling story, based as it is on the lifelong effects of horrendous parental child abuse. It was gratifying to watch as Elinor slowly overcomes a bit of that, and many of her observations were gently humorous. However, her amusing comments and different way of seeing social situations came because of Asperger's or something akin to that, so after a while I just felt sad for her when she clearly didn't understand social interactions and norms. I listened to this book, and I wonder if I would have felt better about it if I'd I read it instead. The narrator was excellent, but had I read it I don't think my imagination is good enough to have made Eleanor's so was unrelentingly heartbreaking.
    • 4/5
      An excellent novel about a damaged young woman on a path to a better, happier self. Not an original theme, but this protagonist was poignant and charming. I dare you not to like this story.