"At first I thought that he was being surprisingly and uncharacteristically thoughtful, but then I realized that he simply didn't want to arrive alone. Some people, weak people, fear solitude. What they fail to understand is that there's something very liberating about it; once you realize that you don't need anyone, you can take care of yourself. That's the thing: it's the best just to take care of yourself. You can't protect other people, however hard you try. You try, and you fail, and your world collapses around you, burns down to ashes." ~ Chapter 17, page 159.
Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine like a wine…. or vodka but that doesn’t rhyme. It will only take you few pages to realize that Eleanor is not fine. I picked this book at the train station newsagents because it had a sticker “Costa Coffee Awards winner 2017” on. Costa coffee is my favourite coffee chain. While we share the same love for coffee, when it comes to books it is not that straightforward.
I felt like everything that the cover was promising wasn’t true. “Funny”? Absolutely no. “Tribute to loneliness?” Yes, there was a lot of loneliness…
This book was very depressing to read and I really struggled to get through the beginning of the book. I didn’t enjoy it and I was really worried about dear Eleanor. It was one of the saddest and most depressing books I read so far.
But let’s talk more about Eleanor as she is the main character and the focus of the whole book. What I liked about Eleanor was how literate she was. I wish I had vocabulary similar to hers I wish I could express myself the way she did. She used the language of Jane Eyre or Bronte sisters. I also liked her observation skills. She noticed lots of details that we all miss in our daily routines. This is something we should all learn from her and try to notice and appreciate our surroundings more. What I didn’t like about Eleanor was her mental state. I wish she took action, that she searched for help sooner or spoke with someone about the problems… I wish someone noticed, that someone helped... I have no idea what it is like to live the way she did and I wish that no one ever does. But I also know the world is not as we want it to be and for Eleanor, the world was very dark.
The story was divided into three parts: Good days, Bad days and Better days. I can tell you that the Good days section was the most depressing one. Was this the intention of the author? Or was this just my perception? Better Days gives a little bit of hope that after 30 years of existence Eleanor will finally live.
The author doesn’t really focus on the story, and that is the reason why I didn’t enjoy the book as much. I felt like the events were pure tools to show what mental state Eleanor is in and are secondary. The major part of the book were her the internal monologues and thoughts.
The author doesn’t really focus on the story, and that is the reason why I didn’t enjoy the book as much. I felt like the events were pure tools to show what mental state Eleanor is in and are secondary. The major part of the book were her the internal monologues and thoughts.
As I praised the vocabulary and the expressions that Eleanor used, I have to give credit to the author as well. I believe the book was very well written. You could see the difference in age, accent or social status of the characters when they spoke.
I know I have said that I didn't like this book and it is true but I am not going to say it was a bad book because I can see that it was well written the characters had depth, there was a lot of progress that Eleanor did from the beginning to the end, but I know now that this is not my cup of tea…
I am going back to the fantasy and young adult which brings more adventures, magic and new lands that need to be discovered.
Synopsis:
Meet Eleanor Oliphant: She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy. All this means that Eleanor has become a creature of habit (to say the least) and a bit of a loner.
But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office. When she and Raymond together save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen on the sidewalk, the three become the kinds of friends who rescue one another from the lives of isolation they have each been living. And it is Raymond’s big heart that will ultimately help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one.
But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office. When she and Raymond together save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen on the sidewalk, the three become the kinds of friends who rescue one another from the lives of isolation they have each been living. And it is Raymond’s big heart that will ultimately help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one.
