This book was one of RW Bookclub’s new finds. Following her reading list for quite sometime now, I knew this one would be a hidden treasure too. This book is a thorny journey, occasionally poking you with giggles, grins and grief.
When someone asks how you're doing, out of the virtue of the question, your obligatory answer is “fine”. No one wants to know how you're actually feeling, what’s really going on inside you. Eleanor Oliphant is fine. Eleanor has no friends, has social anxiety but that is ok. She was fine because after everything, this routine is all she needed to lead a somewhat normal life.
Ms. Oliphant had a very simple mundane life tailored for her. She goes to work-comes home. Meals set for everyday, nothing to ponder over. Weekly calls from Mummy. A Friday evening outing that brings home 2 bottles of vodka for the weekend and just like that back to Monday. Her life was set.
On one of these ordinary evenings, Eleanor preparing to leave work, with her intricate plan of avoiding everyone, is at the receiving end of a humane gesture from a colleague and her humdrum routine starts to fade away. That evening she meets Raymond, the IT guy; this meeting is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. A bond she would cherish. A bond that would change her. The warmth of caring people, over time makes her realize the moments she didn’t know could exist between individuals. The tenderness of a hug, a soft kiss on the cheek or just sharing joyous times with your loved ones was all very fresh to her.
Eleanor lived in a slightly different manner growing up. Mummy always told her she had to be a certain way. Be presentable. Be clever. Mummy didn’t miss a chance to let her know that she wasn’t any of those things. That is why she needed a perfect gentleman in her life. A project as she liked to call it, always slipped in between the slurs, on their weekly calls. You can’t help but loath Mummy every time she rung.
After Raymond witnesses her during her dark days, shocked yet sympathetic, he encourages her to seek help. Initially slightly hesitant, she is baffled at how that was helping her. Not through very likely circumstances, but it was. Events from her childhood started to unravel. Hidden truths she didn’t want to face are surfacing. Everything took her through a hell of time, emotionally, to finally accepting the reality with all her imperfectly fine shortcomings.
Though on the surface the issues Gail has confronted come off as grim, however, her writing has this lightness to it that you don’t feel the seriousness of it, yet you know its floating right there in between the words and lines. There will be moments where you find yourself relating to Eleanor in the most unexpected of circumstances. She may not be aware of the love and humanity that surrounds her daily; but hell, you know she deserves every bit of it. Her unfiltered way of speaking is simply innocent and funny. Under the quirkiness there is a damaged resilient Eleanor. This is just an excerpt from Ms. Oliphant’s life. There is so much more to her than this trajectory paved here before you. Certainly a character that will stay with you, much after you’ve closed the book. I just wanted to give her a tight hug! Crossing all sense of her obstinate personal space!