Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine
Gail Honeyman’s Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine: a novel (2017) has been on my radar for the two years since its publication. I imagined it to be The Rosie Project meets Bridget Jones Diary. What I found was something else. Eleanor Oliphant is certainly a socially-awkward, vocabulary-rich, first-person narrator, but her story is not just a witty one. It becomes quickly apparent that Eleanor Oliphant is not completely fine. There is a darkness in Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine that surprised me, in part because I wasn’t looking for it and also because Eleanor herself treats it so casually; then again, it is her account, and after many years living in social isolation, how could she treat her story as anything other than ordinary. Normal human interaction has not been her everyday experience.
Set in Glasgow, Scotland, Honeyman’s novel offers its reader a glimpse of the UK systems of healthcare and foster care (it reminded me a bit of A Man Called Ove reflecting the Swedish social systems). But the novel’s real project is teasing Eleanor out of social isolation. The catalyst for her social stepping-out is a bizarre crush (think: stalker-style) on a rock star she happens to see perform. Spotting him (and immediately identifying him as ideal husband material) seems entirely by chance, just as she happens to be walking down the street with a newly-met co-worker (Raymond Gibbons) when they encounter an elderly man (Sammy Thom) in distress. This happenstance fuels much of Eleanor’s story, as Raymond, her somewhat dumpy although abundantly kind colleague, reaches out to Eleanor time and time again. Ultimately, his friendship drives the novel’s resolution and Eleanor’s salvation.
While I found plenty of humor in Eleanor’s descriptions and linguaphile style, she is a character trapped in the tragedy of her past. Through the novel’s progress, however, certain situations make it necessary for her to deal with her most definitely un-fine circumstances and face her traumatic past. As Eleanor grapples with her past, the novel reveals a bit of a plot twist regarding her mother, which I found somewhat predictable, slightly disappointing but also somehow vindicating. Child abuse, domestic violence, alcoholism and suicide all play a role in Eleanor’s story, but oddly the story is also cozy like Raymond. And I guess that odd is a good word for Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. It is a fast-read and at times quite funny, but it is also a look at the dark psychology of childhood trauma. The writing itself is eloquent and succinct, Eleanor’s love of words and pith make for an enjoyable read, albeit one that has plenty of uncomfortable moments. Ultimately, it is a life-affirming story, as a random and perhaps unlikely friendship provides Eleanor enough human connection that she manages to find herself, at long last, completely fine.
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A Few Great Passages:
“It often feels as if I’m not here, that I’m a figment of my own imagination. There are days when I feel so lightly connected to the earth that the threads that tether me to the planet are gossamer thin, spun sugar. A strong gust of wind could dislodge me completely, and I’d lift off and blow away, like one of those seeds in a dandelion clock” (5).
“All of the people in the room seemed to take so much for granted: that they would be invited to social events, that they would have friends and family to talk to, that they would fall in love, be loved in return, perhaps create a family of their own” (164-165).
“I suppose one of the reasons we’re all able to continue to exist for our allotted span in this green and blue vale of tears is that there is always, however remote it may seem, the possibility of change”
(182).
“I am not generally a wearer of perfume, preferring to smell of plain soap and my natural musk, but, were it possible to purchase a bottle in which the scent of new pencil shavings and the petroleum reek of a freshly rubbed eraser were combined, I would happily douse myself with it on a daily basis” (305-306).
Bibliography:
Honeyman, Gail. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine: a Novel. Pamela Dorman Books/Viking: New York, 2017.
