No one was supposed to live like this. The problem was that I simply didn’t know how to make it right. Mummy’s way was wrong, I knew that. But no one had ever shown me the right way to live a life... [p. 232]
Eleanor Oliphant is thirty years old, a creature of habit who wears identical clothes every day, does not believe in pretending or hiding her feelings, spends her evenings and weekends alone, and is proud of needing nobody else. Despite this, she has just fallen in love with the man she intends to marry, though they have not properly met.
Or: Eleanor Oliphant is thirty years old, poorly socialised, represses all memories of her childhood, drinks a bottle of vodka every Friday night, has no meaningful social interactions except for fraught conversations with her mother, and states that she has no emotional needs. Despite this, she has developed a crush on a guy in a band, and is stalking him.
Eleanor's life changes when she and a colleague Raymond assist an old man who's collapsed in the street. Her workmates, initially prone to mockery, begin to warm to her; she forms positive relationships with Raymond, his mother, and the family of the man she helped; she transforms her appearance in readiness for a face-to-face meeting with the future husband.
I'm still thinking about this novel, which I engaged with for reasons of plot rather than style. I took it very personally, because it made me think about my relationship with my own mother (who died over thirty years ago, which does not stop me internalising her voice and her opinions), and also because Eleanor at the beginning of the novel -- mocked, oblivious, lonely, judgmental -- reminded me of the worst aspects of myself. It's a good novel about loneliness and about emotional abuse, and it has an emotional arc that avoids easy (romantic) resolutions. I started off disliking Eleanor, and by the end I both liked and pitied her. I formulated theories as I read, and some of them turned out to be right: I still also think that there's a possibility that Eleanor, who believes she is 'terrible', is responsible for her own situation. But I would rather take the story at face value, as a tale of leaving the past behind and learning to live well.
Also, I am very much in favour of cats as therapy animals. Finally Eleanor has met someone more judgmental than herself.
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