Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

I was on two airplanes last week and I brought this book along for the ride. On both legs of my journey I saw women on my flights reading this book. And those women who were not reading it, had recently devoured it. As I slipped into my aisle seat the woman in the middle of my row tapped my book cover and said, “Oh Eleanor! Oh Eleanor!” Clutching my large print edition from the Mill Valley library I said, “Yes, it is wonderful isn’t it?” The other woman said, “Yes but I’m really mad at Reese Witherspoon.” I said, “I said why are you mad at Reese?” as if we both knew the actress personally and saw her every Wednesday for lunch. “She bought the rights to the book and I just don’t see her as Eleanor.” Whether Reese can pull off Eleanor remains to be seen, but the fact is that this book is speaking to millions of woman this summer. As a card-carrying anxiety sufferer, any character who drinks vodka in a stylish OCD manor is a friend of mine. But there is so much more to Eleanor. She suffers from social anxiety, and thus protects herself by leading a lonely, isolated life. Except for her job in the finance department at a Glasgow, Scotland-based graphic design company, she has no friends or hobbies other than doing the crossword puzzle and planning her food for the day. Not until she meets a man at work named Raymond, who works in the IT department, does her life begins to change. For the first time, someone is able to not only see Eleanor’s potential through her damaged veil, but also help her come out of her clamshell as well.  The spirit of this book rings true in every page and it’s just sad that it had to end. Oh, Eleanor indeed! To purchase this book on Amazon click here.