Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

Publish Date: May 09, 2017

Read Date: 11/18/2018 - 11/27/2018

Rating: ★★★★


" My life, I realized, had gone wrong. Very, very wrong. I wasn't supposed to live like thus. No one was supposed to live like this. The problem was that I simply didn't know how to make it right"

Eleanor Oliphant is a complicated 30 year old woman with a simple life. She arrives to work in the morning and goes home at night to an empty apartment. The small joys she seems to have in her life are her nightly rituals of vodka, her Fridays of vodka and pizza, and her weekly chats with her mom.

Eleanor doesn't have any friends, and doesn't quite know how to handle herself socially. All things considered though, she is completely fine.

On her trip home from work one evening, Eleanor and a newly met co-worker, Raymond from I.T., happened to be in the right place in just the right time to encounter Sammy. Sammy is an elderly man who is in need of medical attention. Raymond and Eleanor rush over to help him.  In typical story book fashion, this leads Eleanor into her most exciting time ever.

Raymond convinces Eleanor to visit Sammy in the hospital, and while there , met his family.

Throughout the course of Sammys recovery, Eleanor and Raymond's friendship begins to blossom. Eleanor begins to grow personally and socially.

It's not all glitter and rainbows for Eleanor. Eleanor believes she has met "the one". The man who will rescue her and make everything better. In true Eleanor fashion, she latches on to this man in an unhealthy made up world. Eventually, it all crashes in.

Eleanor is left in complete despair, contemplating suicide.

To her surprise, Raymond comes through as a miraculous friend, and helps her find the courage to talk to someone and get help.

Eleanor slowly works through her personal traumas and kicks her vodka habit. Eleanor begins to emerge better than she has ever been. She adopts a tortured cat, appropriately named for her favorite vodka. She begins to see that she is loved and cared for and deserves all the good things in life.

*** Personal note:  At the beginning of reading this, I found Eleanor to be quite annoying. The type of person that you would be kind to out of humanity, but silently judge. Don't lie, we all do it. Although, I was not annoyed with her enough to give up on the book, and I am quite glad I didn't. There were many times I found myself relateable to her. The way she feels about situations, sneaks up on you and you feel it with her.***