Kathy Hamilton Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman is tender, raw and moving. But it’s also funny and dark. How could you not be intrigued by a book that can claim all of these epithets and more? It’s also exactly the book I needed to tempt me out of my book review hiatus!
I debated whether or not to add to the plethora of comments about this book. It’s not exactly new at this point! But Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine seeped under my skin and has stayed there, urging me to tell you about it. Besides, what’s the fun in having a blog if I can’t indulge myself sometimes?
As the New Year dawned I decided to sit myself down and read Eleanor Oliphant is Completly Fine by Gail Honeyman. I wasn’t prepared to love it so much. If I’m honest, I deliberately tried to ignore the hype surrounding Gail Honeyman’s debut novel. Last year it seemed that everyone was reading this book! But, my curiosity eventually won me over. That and the crafty publication of a beautiful limited edition version. Guys, publishers know what they’re doing don’t they?
“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.”
― Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
Eleanor’s entire existence is tidy, neat, and arguably safe. Exactly the way she likes it. It’s also empty of anything meaningful. She’s fallen easily into a pattern of working all week and spending weekends with nothing but a Tesco Pizza and two bottles of vodka for company. She sees, and speaks, to nobody until Monday rolls around again.
What immediately struck me was how honest this book is in its portrayal of loneliness. And how much that theme hit me like a hammer. It’s been said that Millennials are lonelier than any other generation but I’d never thought beyond the snappy headline. But in Gail Honeyman’s depiction of Eleanor’s all too common solitude, I was dismayed to recognise something of my own life.
Eleanor’s isolation is borne out of repressed Childhood trauma, which is gradually revealed as the novel progresses. However, the novel’s subtlety is to introduce characters who, whilst encouraging Eleanor to make tentative steps into living her life, are revealed to be equally lonely in their own way.
Raymond for example. Bumbling, shuffling, adorable Raymond recognises the humanity in Eleanor that others have stopped trying to see. He continually offers her opportunities to socialise, to blossom. However, he’s dealing with his own loneliness. His life is sparsely populated, a housemate, his mother and whispers of the heartbreak he’s gradually recovering from. This relationship is mentioned only briefly, but for me was heavily weighted. It serves as a reminder that although Eleanor’s extreme loneliness is the focus, each human in the novel is working through their own issues too.
“Free-form jigging, communal shapes in the air; Dancing was easy!…YMCA! YMCA! Arms in the air, mimicking the letters – what a marvelous idea! Who knew that dancing could be so logical? …From my limited exposure to popular music, people did seem to sing about umbrellas and firstarting and Emily Bronte novels, so, I supposed, why not a gender-and faith-based youth organization?”
―Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine By Gail Honeyman
That’s not to say that this book is completely devoid of laugh out loud moments. In fact, they abound. As Eleanor increasingly navigates social life, she offers up plenty of opportunity of hilarious and awkward encounters. The quote above, for example, is one of my favourite moments. Picturing Eleanor, after getting to know her as the book progresses, happily jigging the YMCA at a Working Men’s Club is almost high farce. It’s a beautiful moment in the novel and one where we see Eleanor as truly happy for the first time.
However, this book is not without its weight. It would have been all too easy for Gail Honeyman to gradually ease Eleanor into a fulfilled life free from problems. To have her YMCA merrily into a happy ever after. To be honest, this is where I thought the book was going. “It’s a shame,” I thought, “This book was almost brilliant”
Perhaps it is a testament to Honeyman’s skill that she lulls us in this way. Eleanor’s high jinks and social ineptness make us forget that underneath she has become deeply damaged by the trauma she has suffered. So when “The Bad Days” as they’re called in the book arrive their impact is one of brute force.
“I’d tried to cope alone for far too long, and it hadn’t done me any good at all. Sometimes you simply needed someone kind to sit with you while you dealt with things.”
― Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by
It was this portion of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman that transformed it from good, to great for me. The delicacy and pathos of these chapters will stay with me for a long time. I’m lucky never to have reached the depths of despair that Eleanor travels to in this novel. But I think for many of us the book serves as a reminder of just how insidious loneliness and isolation can become.
Eleanor Oliphant’s happy ending arrives eventually – and when it does it feels right. After spending time with Eleanor you are left so, so happy that she’s finally been given this chance.
This book, if you can’t tell, is wonderful. So too is its parting message: it is never too late, for any of us to be happy.
