Eleanor Oliphant doesn’t like surprises. She is living alone on the same flat and working at the same office for years. Every Wednesday she calls her mum and every Friday night she buys a pizza and two bottles of wodka. When Eleanor and her new colleague Raymond help an old man after an accident on the street, she is forced to break her routine. At the same time she has met the men of her life. The only problem is that he doesn’t know it yet.
I don’t read many non historical books. Only a few per year. This one was a Christmas gift from my sister-in-a-law and coincidence or not, I already had this book on my TBR list as everyone seemed to love it. Yep, I’m the kind of person that reads a hyped book just to know what all the fuzz is about. I have decided to also review them on this blog.
Eleanor Oliphant is a quirky main character. A recipe that always makes for a good story. But sometimes it doesn’t work out for me (I found ‘Stoner’ for example utterly disappointing). But this is a good story. Once your start reading, you just know that Eleanor is not ok but that she tries to cope with her life in a different way than any of us would. We all recognize something of ourselves in Eleanor. She’s human with all her faults and flaws.
Not much happens. Eleanor meets a new colleague who truly shows an interest in her and together they bring an old man to the hospital. This sets some things in motion. Slowly you discover her past as Raymond and Sammy force Eleanor to open up her heart and leave her safe habits behind. Her character development is the sole focus of the book. A lot of bad things happened to Eleanor and you wish her all the best. Still the book had me at a certain plot twist and I was fulfilled at the end.
Honeyman writes a wonderful story, beautifully paced, although sometimes with some difficult literary words. As this was her debut novel it’s quite impressive that Eleanor conquered a place in the heart of so many readers. One of the better non historical books I’ve read in recent years.
Have you read this one? Are you a routine person or do you just go with the flow?
In Another Era 