Title: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine
Press: HarperCollins
Prizes: Costa First Novel Award (2017)
Book of the Year at The British Book Awards (2018)
Date of publication: 2017
Date of purchase: August 2018
RRP: £8.99
Price of purchase: Free as part of the KU Big Read
Reading time: 1 Week
Rating: 8
This book came to me at just the right time. I was working 50 hour weeks in a bar and for the first time I was not enjoying the work. It was too quiet and there were too few staff. I suppose you could say that I was beginning to get a little lonely. I started Eleanor with a strong dislike for her, I’ve met people with some of her mannerisms and they are irritating and difficult. More than anything else I felt that this book educated me, or at least revised an understanding I surely had in childhood, that kindness can count for a lot more than it costs you. This is a book about the possibility of human connection to change an individual’s life. The author discusses the challenges of therapy frankly and positions a well-timed twist to keep the reader on their toes. I’m generally a miserable cynic and on certain days I would have dismissed this novel as ‘happy clappy nonsense’. I am very pleased to have been proven wrong and would encourage anyone with similar tendencies to read on regardless. Either the genre won’t be for you or you’ll learn something new about yourself. There’s nothing to lose and potentially, a whole new outlook to gain.
[link to my discussion of the audience given by Gail Honeyman https://bethsbooks.home.blog/2018/10/25/an-audience-with-gail-honeyman-kingston-univeristy/]
[link to a little bit more about ‘up-lit’ https://bethsbooks.home.blog/2018/10/27/what-is-up-lit/]
Beth's Books (and other bits and bobs) 