I really enjoy novels with a psychological undertones. As the character unwinds his or her mental
ordeals, it is absorbing reading to experience the trauma such a character
undergoes to conquer their demons or the tragic ending evidenced by an
inability to cope. The opening lines of
Gail Honeyman’s debut novel, Eleanor
Oliphant Is Completely Fine, do not portend an easy recovery, but perhaps
worse, a tragic ending.
However, this is a story of a woman fighting all those demons to
reassemble her life after a tragic act perpetrated by her mother. The novel opens, “When people ask me what I
do—taxi drivers, hairdressers—I tell them I work in an office. In almost nine years, no one’s ever asked
whether that’s because I fit perfectly with their idea of what an office worker
looks like, or whether people hear the phrase work in an office and automatically fill in the blanks
themselves—lady doing photocopying, man tapping at a keyboard. I’m not complaining” (3). My first impression sounded an alarm of
ennui, but something held me captive and I began turning pages.
Honeyman continues, “I’m thirty years old now and I’ve been working here
since I was twenty-one. Bob, the owner,
took me on not long after the office opened.
I suppose he felt sorry for me. I
had a degree in Classics and no work experience to speak of, and I turned up
for the interview with a black eye, a couple of teeth missing and a broken arm”
(3). My intrigue meter shot up, and I
started reading with only a bit of concern, since this was a debut novel. A couple of hours later, I was fully
invested. This turned out to be a
suspenseful story of a young woman coming to terms with her life following a
tragic fire.
As you might expect, Eleanor spends much time and effort in examining
her life, and what she might be able to accomplish. Honeyman again, “I have always taken great
pride in managing my life alone. I’m a
sole survivor—I’m Eleanor Oliphant. I
don’t need anyone else—there’s no big hole in my life, no missing part of my
own particular puzzle. I am a
self-contained entity. That’s what I’ve
always told myself, at any rate. But
last night, I’d found the love of my life” (7-8). I felt as if I was listening in on a patient therapist
discussion.

--Chiron, 9/24/18
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