Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine
Book Review - Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
I brought four books with me to Kauai, I never thought I'd finish all four but I wanted to take photos of them while I was there. Not only did I finish all four, I finished them before the flight home! So I stopped by the airport bookstore and picked up one more. So many of my friends have been talking about how much they loved this book PLUS Reese Witherspoon bought the film rights so I wanted to read it before it became a movie. I chose well, this book was fantastic.
The book is centered around Eleanor Oliphant, she is an eccentric character working for a small design firm. She struggles with social skills and dresses oddly - both results of her traumatic childhood, much of which was spent in the foster care system. We get hints of Eleanor's background throughout the book as well as an illustration of her current, rather lonely, existence. She has her eye set on a musician she saw perform once at a bar, so she decides to do an internal and external makeover in order to catch his eye. Meanwhile, a coworker befriends her (much to her chagrin) and invites her out to regular lunches in order to get to know her better.
The story starts somewhat slowly, it takes a while to get a sense of Eleanor and understand her eccentricities. With each chapter, the story builds and builds to a big reveal at the end. Although I had predicted the ending about halfway through the book, I am still glad I finished it. Eleanor's character development was SO good, I love how the author allowed us to witness Eleanor's self-discovery and the impact that made on her relationship with friends and coworkers. The book was really well executed - I'm not surprised at all that Reese Witherspoon is making it into a movie. I think this will be a great movie - I can't wait to see who plays Eleanor!