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Heaven: November Book Club - Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine
The Book choice for November is Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman.
As usual I'll post some questions on the 20th, but in the meantime I hope you give this book a whirl. I thoroughly enjoyed it and as the link says it is very funny and in places very moving. Copies should be fairly easy to get hold of. I think quite a few book groups must have 'done' this book, as copies keep on turning up in the charity book shop where I volunteer. So check there if you can't get it via your local library.
As usual I'll post some questions on the 20th, but in the meantime I hope you give this book a whirl. I thoroughly enjoyed it and as the link says it is very funny and in places very moving. Copies should be fairly easy to get hold of. I think quite a few book groups must have 'done' this book, as copies keep on turning up in the charity book shop where I volunteer. So check there if you can't get it via your local library.
Comments
And it is a great read.
I just started re-reading it last night. I always find second reads of things interesting.
1. This book has been described as about loneliness. Do you agree that this is the main theme?
2. There are some very funny and some very moving scenes. Any particular favourites?
3. What did you think of Eleanor herself as a character?'
At first I thought the book was the love-child of Adrian Mole and Bridget Jones, but soon got disabused of that notion!
It is endearing and truthful in this, because there is so much loneliness in busyness. Loneliness is not just about never seeing people. It is about never being able to let yourself engage with them.
4. How reliable a narrator is Eleanor?
5. Have you thought about what will happen next. Do you think Eleanor and Raymond will become a couple for instance?
Of course that is always the case, but I feel the point in this book is that Eleanor is just starting to change and learn.
Q1 - Perhaps it's more about isolation than loneliness; EO is totally out of touch with the ways in which most people interact with each other. I've known folk like that.
Q2 - Where on earth did she get the idea that she needed a bikini wax? Hilarious.
Q33 - She's certainly entirely believable, and would drive me crazy if she shared any aspect of my daily life. Poor dab, as my Swansea friends would say.
2. Going for a manicure: "would you like to book another visit?" "No, I can do it better myself for free"! And the cat being sick and then eating it, and Eleanor thinks, "Great, low maintenance female."
3. Very well done, the humour of her social ineptness is balanced with the sadness of her situation, and her determination to change.
4. Obviously the mummy thing is her greatest unreliability, but it describes the conversations as she experiences them. And she describes Raymond's reactions to her without understanding why he reacts as he does.
5. Well, I hope they stay friends, anyway! She seems to be on a good path and relating better to her co-workers too, so you get the feeling she's going to be all right. She's clearly a survivor.
2. There are some very funny and some very moving scenes. Any particular favourites?
Her rather inappropriate chatter to the unconscious Sammy made me laugh out loud, as did her dragging Raymond to the death metal gig. The scene where Keith brought round the jumper of Sammy's that Eleanor admired was very moving. I also though the scene of her naked under the kitchen table was really well done, specially the first time I read it.
3. What did you think of Eleanor herself as a character? I rather liked her. On the first reading I thought she had Asperger's Syndrome, though Honeyman says that is not what she was intending to portray, just someone who had so little social interaction she didn't know how to act appropriately.
5. How reliable a narrator is Eleanor?. The Mummy conversations are the most obvious unreliable bits but I rather liked all her kidding herself that she is eating healthily when she's downing so many ready meals and vodka.
5. Have you thought about what will happen next. Do you think Eleanor and Raymond will become a couple for instance?. Eleanor certainly seems on the way to a better life. I don't know if she'll end up with Raymond, but I think she's on the way to having a less lonely life.
I did think the ending was rather optimistic. The fact that Eleanor got some very good counselling for a start without having to wait for ever, and the fact that her co-workers suddenly seemed to understand her personality were two things I thought might not happen in real life.
So I think I would conclude that he is an unreliabile narrator. There are some aspects that it is clear she has a mistaken grasp, but I them become suspicious that her grasp of what is actually going on is (maybe) even more damaged than we have gathered.
It seems to me the author sees it as a book about loneliness, as the novel starts with a quote from The Lonely City, specifically about loneliness, and the specific kind of loneliness experienced by people 'whose loneliness arises from a state of loss or exile or prejudice, who have reason to fear or mistrust as well as long for the society of others.' All of these seem to apply to Eleanor - she has lost her family, was 'exiled', I guess, from her last foster family, who were unable to cope with her, is treated with prejudice because of poor social skills and the way she looks, and definitely has reason to fear and mistrust others. And the quote goes on to say 'the lonelier someone gets, the less adept they get at navigating social currents,' which does seem to be the case here - her isolation has made her unfamiliar with various social conventions.
I'm finding the humour in the novel a little odd, as it mostly seems to be at Eleanor's expense. And the moving bits can seem a bit patronising - it's like the novel is written in such a way that we are kind of at a distance from Eleanor, laughing at her or pitying her, but never fully inside her head. Even though we are being given her thoughts, it's very much orchestrated by the author to create certain effects. Another effect is suspense - her trauma is a plot device, where we are given little hints.
And because of this, I am not sure what I think of Eleanor. She doesn't seem quite real. I mean, what we are shown of her mind doesn't seem the full story of what she would be experiencing, even given the fact that she has post traumatic stress and denial going on. And her social faux pas are inconsistent and kind of done for comedy effect. It seems odd that she wouldn't simply ask what the different kinds of bikini wax are, explaining that she's never had one before - that is her approach in other new situations, such as the pub. When her co-workers call her a Grinch and she tells them she doesn't understand the cultural reference, there's actually no way she could know that is a cultural reference - it could also be a slang term she hasn't come across before, or an in-joke, or all sorts of things (I know this from myself often being in the position of social confusion, not knowing what someone means - sometimes it's from not knowing a cultural reference, but you can't automatically know this).
She is an unreliable narrator, yes - both a 'madman' and a 'naif', using the definitions here. She clearly has repressed memories, and things she can't tell us as she hasn't allowed herself to acknowledge them - there are lots of indiciations of this. We even see the notes on the meeting with her foster parents, which she dismisses as lies, and there is clearly all sorts of unspoken stuff when the social worker visits. And there are lots of times when she interprets a social situation in a way that is a mix of naive and paranoid, and we are given information to know she is misinterpreting. A kind of 'nudge nudge wink wink' thing the author is doing.
But also there is an unreliability which seems to be just the author doing plot devices. The conversations with her mother are kind of surreal, because she describes them in an uncharacteristically vague way. They are not phone conversations, as a phone is never mentioned, and she's said the main phone calls she gets are from sales people, and she's too precise in her language not to talk about a phone ringing or hanging up if it was a phone call. And there's the vagueness of where her mother is - if these were genuine conversations, she'd be precise in telling us, because she is precise in details. It's a mix of the vagueness of flashbacks and repression with the specifics of dialogue. So this is a mysterious thing the author is doing, to intrigue us and make us wonder. I'm torn between trying to analyse and just letting myself be surprised at the end, because I like surprises in novels, but also I like analysing. I'm guessing her mother is dead, as that would account for the vagueness of where she is. And that these conversations are a weird kind of flashback/hallucination, controlled to some extent, a kind of reliving, trying to create some order, to set some boundaries with her mother. There is clearly a younger sister who died - I'm wondering if the mother and sister died together in the fire.
It's kind of like reading a psychological thriller, but also more superficial, a bit Bridget Jonesy too - the crush on the singer, the gradual makeover, starting going to parties, etc. Eleanor seems to be undergoing a transformation of doing typical girly things that women in chicklit stories do, and so therefore becoming more 'normal.' And also along with this, learning to trust people and feel more compassion and make friends. I find this a bit daft - the idea that learning to trust and to experience compassion and companionship go side-by-side with having a make-over and going to parties! As if the whole make-over thing is part of becoming a whole and healthy human being! But then trauma is a bit of a heavy subject, so adding humour and chicklit type stuff and warm, cosy bits is more likely to make it a bestseller. I'm only halfway through the novel, so I will wait and see how it develops.
I agree with Sarasa and Andras that it is more about isolation than loneliness. Eleanor is in a vicious circle; the less she socialises with other people, the less she knows how to.
2. There are some very funny and some very moving scenes. Any particular favourites?
I enjoyed a lot of the one liner asides, such as Eleanor's disapproval of Raymond adding sugar to his Americano, whilst she is drinking coffee with extra cream and hazelnut syrup.
3. What did you think of Eleanor herself as a character?
I liked her. She has tenacity. I think everyone has Eleanor moments when they find themselves amongst people who know a lot about something baffling (football, reality TV stars, whatever) and don't know what the correct response is. Eleanor's whole life is like that.
4. How reliable a narrator is Eleanor?.
She is truthful, but not reliable.
5. Have you thought about what will happen next. Do you think Eleanor and Raymond will become a couple for instance?
I hope not. Ideally, Eleanor will meet a friend / cousin of Raymond's, he will meet someone else, and Eleanor and Raymond will continue to have a warm relationship. I see them as an uncle / aunt to each other's children, rather than co-parents.
I still don't really like the whole makeover aspect of it - it seems a bit simplistic that this is what gets people to start warming to her, the fact that she is suddenly making an effort with her appearance. Suddenly her colleagues are friendly because she gets her hair done. I was wondering if the same would apply to Raymond - as his clothes are apparently childish and scruffy, and his posture poor, and his table manner lacking. It would make sense that he should have a makeover too, and learn to not slurp his food or speak with his mouth full! But nope, nothing needs to change with him, apparently. It's just the woman who needs to change, and part of her changing is to put up with his flaws.
I'm being a bit critical, I guess. I think I was expecting something deeper, a more in-depth look at the complex effects of childhood trauma. This seemed more simplistic and chicklitty. I didn't really get a sense of Eleanor as an individual - more just a bundle of humorous social faux pas and sad repressed trauma, someone to be laughed at and pitied and rooted for and smiled at. And hey, she gets the internet, she gets a cat and takes cat photos - so she somehow succeeds as the epitome of a modern woman! I guess it's one of those books that has a lot of hype and doesn't quite live up to it. But I'm glad I read it.
I do think it was about loneliness, though, not simply about isolation. The loneliness is caused by isolation, caused by trauma, as the quote at the beginning suggests, but it does seem to be loneliness that is the main issue, the barrier that Eleanor wants to overcome. She wants to connect with others, to feel people care for her, to have human touch and contact. And she becomes more aware of this as she has more contact with people and realises what she is missing. The crush on the singer didn't quite ring true for me, but it seemed necessary, plotwise, as the catalyst to motivate her to start making changes to her life.
As for what happens next, I think the author deliberately lets us know that there is a possible romantic future for Eleanor and Raymond, as Raymond decides Laura is too high maintenance for him. It's one of those endings that lets you know things are hopeful, but with nothing definite. I just see it that they are two fictional characters and nothing happens unless the author writes a sequel. I wish I cared more what happens next, but the characters didn't quite become fully real for me, but more pawns in a clever plot. I will be interested to watch the movie version though.
I agree that the things Eleanor was doing to make herself attractive for the musician did seem a bit 'chicklitty', but I guess they were among the random books she was reading. I agree that the end seemed to happen much more quickly than I think it would in real life. I would think it would be far more gradual than that, but it is after all fiction. I actually thought Raymond was a pretty well drawn character. There are very few books with someone quite so ordinary in them.
I agree, Raymond is an ordinary character. That seems to be his role, I thought - a nice, ordinary, kind guy, so that Eleanor can get to understand ‘normality’, and see her own experience in the light of it. He is not one of the in-crowd, who laugh at her, but a new guy who is a bit awkward in gait and clothing and manners, but sensitive from taking care of an elderly mother.
I did find it a bit annoying that Eleanor needs to have a make-over to polish her up externally in order to be accepted, and Raymond doesn’t! But that is a thing I notice in society too, at least among young people. As a socially awkward person myself, who was often whispered about and laughed at, my peers were always genuinely warm and friendlier to me if I did something to make my appearance more trendy when I was younger - they seemed to take it as a kind of personal acceptance of them and their norms, and expressed they were pleased I was ‘making an effort’ to fit in with trends, and then they wanted to do makeovers on me, kind of seeing me as a cute pet! This doesn’t seem to happen with blokes.
And then there's the Eleanor / Marianne combination, echoing Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, which is flagged up within Eleanor Oliphant. I'd have to re-read Sense and Sensibility to see the significance of that.
And yes, also the play of Eleanor and Marianne with Sense and Sensibility. Elinor is the stoic sister in that, who doesn't let her emotions dictate how she behaves or stop her getting on with life, while Marianne is led more by her emotions, thinking that if her heart is broken everything must stop and she can't do anything, and she becomes ill and nearly dies - but she doesn't. Eleanor comments on how the happy ending of Sense and Sensibility is unrealistic but satisfying.
Question: would it have been a better book (though probably not so popular!) if it had ended up with Eleanor reverting to her previous life?
Eleanors makeover - I think this is really an external representation of the internal change. So it is showing publically what is happening internally, and so she is being accepted for the changes being made.
Maybe it would have worked if her work colleagues had seen the changes in her more, but this is really a standard literary trick to speed up the action. They would have seen the changes, but over a lot longer time period. Also, she seemed to deliberately wish to avoid her colleagues. The external changes were a way of her signalling that this was changing, so they could approach her.
As for the make-over, I think its quite clever it goes from something hidden, the bikini wax through to things that are more obvious ending up with the bold new haircut.
Actually, that is an interesting take - from a private "haircut" to a public haircut.