#Book #Review Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman #DEBUT NOVEL

Publication date 18 May 2017

Harper Collins

**COSTA FIRST NOVEL BOOK AWARD WINNER**

Book description:

Eleanor Oliphant has learned how to survive – but not how to live

Eleanor Oliphant leads a simple life. She wears the same clothes to work every day, eats the same meal deal for lunch every day and buys the same two bottles of vodka to drink every weekend.

Eleanor Oliphant is happy. Nothing is missing from her carefully timetabled life. Except, sometimes, everything.

One simple act of kindness is about to shatter the walls Eleanor has built around herself. Now she must learn how to navigate the world that everyone else seems to take for granted – while searching for the courage to face the dark corners she’s avoided all her life.

Change can be good. Change can be bad. But surely any change is better than… fine?

My review:

Eleanor Oliphant has been added to my list of characters who have made their mark on me. She is amazing, but very misunderstood.  At the beginning of the book she is a creature of habit who is an extreme introvert, lets nobody in and is very judgmental of how others conduct themselves.  She has a regular job as a finance clerk in a graphic design office but rarely mixes with her colleagues outside work. She knows what she likes and rarely deviates from it. The cryptic crossword in the daily paper is her biggest challenge and she enjoys a tot of vodka in the privacy of her own home. But while we are presented with this rather eccentric, extremely private individual we can tell there is far more to Eleanor than she is letting on.  Things begin to change when she and Raymond the IT tech guy from her office come to the aid of and elderly man who has fallen in the street and requires medical help.  She is forced into situations she would normally steer away from, both emotionally and socially, and eventually finds that she rather likes the idea of having Raymond as a friend.
Life takes a disturbing turn for Eleanor however when she decides that she needs to become more "normal"  in order to catch the attention of a rather attractive singer.  After a promising start her plan goes awry in rather spectacular fashion and she ends up having to confront her demons.
Little by little Eleanor opens up and begins to understand a lot more about herself which she had buried in the depths of her mind in order to protect herself throughout her adolescent years, and as a reader we discover what has made her who she is.  There is a fairly small cast of characters but each of them has an important role in the telling of our leading lady's life, whether she realises it or not.
I loved Eleanor and her quirks from the first page to the last and would love to read more about her life.  Please let there be a sequel!!

About the Author:

Gail Honeyman wrote her debut novel, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, while working a full-time job, and it was shortlisted for the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize as a work in progress. She has also been awarded the Scottish Book Trust's Next Chapter Award 2014, was longlisted for BBC Radio 4's Opening Lines, and was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize. She lives in Glasgow.