How exciting to enter what is undeniably a saturated discourse about a book that totally swept the bestseller lists upon its release. How exciting it is also to know that your feelings about the book were right all along. Let’s be clear, Eleanor Oliphant is not a horrible book. In fact, it’s very readable, tender and has a powerful message about how we treat others. But none of this means that this book is actually any good.
Eleanor is at first painted as a Glaswegian Bridget Jones, if Bridget was even more socially inept and more of an alcoholic. However, Honeyman drops several big hints very early on that Eleanor’s peculiarities stem from unexplored childhood trauma, the full extent of which isn’t revealed until the very end of the book.
In two sections, Eleanor walks us through her slow reintegration into society as well as the pain of the trauma which begins to resurface. Eleanor is a personable character and Honeyman clearly took great pains to adopt a singular, authentic voice. Ultimately for me, though, Eleanor is too painted and too mechanical to be a believable narrator. She’s socially inept before magically forming nuanced relationships, she’s mean and unforgiving until she’s everyone’s best mate and she’s an alcoholic until she miraculously isn’t.
It’s all a little bit too easy — a little bit too ‘Costa Book Award’ for me.
Honeyman genuinely tries to do justice to the massive issues she takes on such as abuse and mental illness but the book is too flimsy and twee to do any of this properly. I breathed a massive sigh of relief when the romantic arc between Eleanor and her new best friend was only hinted at. It would have been way too easy to have them fall in love in spite of the odds and for a book that prefers to take the easy route with most things, I was at least thankful that this particular cliché was avoided.
Sadly, most others weren’t. Perhaps it’s unfair to tear apart a book which I actually quite enjoyed but there really is nothing noteworthy in this book to warrant the massive fanfare it was met with. Its title is a fair assessment — it’s fine.
