Eleanor Oliphant has been on my reading list for awhile now. I knew absolutely nothing about the novel other than that it was a Reese’s Book Club pick...yes I am that girl, if certain people tell me I should read a book, it automatically goes on my list. Yes I include Reese Witherspoon on that list of people, because if I’m being honest she has yet to let me down, she picks incredible novels.
Don’t worry, it’s not everyone who I listen to on books, my friends and most people, I’ll look into it. My Mom (and my aunt by proxy as a lot of the books my mom hands me originated from her), my sister, and Reese get an automatic. I'm going to at least attempt to read that book. I trust these people as they’ve never let me down on a book rec. Especially when it comes to my family members, they’ve watched me grow up reading, they know what books I enjoy and what books I probably won't. Which ones I’ll give up on and the ones that I need to not give up on.
I’m rambling….
Eleanor had such an incredibly intense and tragic life. It really got me thinking about our interactions with one another, a continuation if you will from my thoughts on Addie LaRue, how we treat each other matters.
Eleanor was trained from a young age that other people were not worth her time and that she was not worthy of attention from other people. Moving into the foster system with a very noticeable scar on her face must have garnered a lot of isolation. As such Eleanor is isolated, so isolated that she doesn’t even seem to realize at least not consciously how lonely and alone she really is.
Eleanor was never taught either by a parent, or through the ability to have friends whether it was for fear of a controlling abusive mother or from the ruthless taunting of schoolmates after her scar; how to edit what she said. As she spends time with Raymond you get to watch her brain make the connections, see when she offends him.
We take so many things in our society for granted, the social etiquette that is completely unspoken and yet as Raymond put it “I don’t know how you know, you just know”. We just know because someone was there to show us the way. It’s actually really shitty of us to expect everyone to “just know”, that when someone says don’t bring something to a party, you still should, that being brutally honest about everything, isn’t actually what people want. I honestly think we should all start being a bit more honest, but then a lot of people will end up with hurt feelings.
This novel was absolutely heartbreaking a lot of the time, and yet, it was extremely interesting to see the progression of a mind that wasn’t taught the “normal” social constructs, someone who socially was on the level of a shy toddler still figuring out the world around them. While at the same time dealing with unaddressed trauma.
How did no adult in her life, no social worker sense the need to get this poor woman some help? She was a child, she almost died, her mother almost murdered her and murdered her sister, why was she not immediately put in therapy. Given a consistent home to live in? Obviously she would act out, obviously she would be a “problem” child for the system. She had been irrevocably traumatized.
I just have one question, is there a sequel? Because I really need to know who the hell this “Mummy” is that she’s talking to every week if her mother died in the fire with her baby sister. I mean, is it a typo? Is she talking to herself? Why is she not concerned about this detail in the papers? I. Need. Answers!
“Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine” by Gail Honeyman
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Eleanor_Oliphant_Is_Completely_Fine/_ZLZDAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0
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