February book of the month: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

[RachelMumsnet]

We're kicking off 2018 with the brilliant, award-winning debut Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. We're still waiting for confirmation on the webchat date but Gail will be joining us at the end of Feb to discuss the book and answer your questions.

If you're interested in joining us in reading Eleanor Oliphant, find out more about the book and read or listen to an extract.

Join our discussion about the book on this thread and do join us for the evening webchat with Gail at the end of the month. More info to follow....

I loved the book - but is there a mistake with the newspaper articles near the end of the book?

Thanks to everyone for post up feedback.

We're having to postpone the webchat with Gail Honeyman tonight as she's having some wifi difficulties. We're speaking now with the publisher and will hopefully have a new date for one evening next week shortly. We'll update on this thread and will start a new 'webchat' thread where the webchat will take place and where you can post any questions for Gail.

The webchat with Gail Honeyman will now take place next Wednesday evening - that's Weds 7 March, 9-10pm.

I'm just over half way through. Really enjoying it.

Eleanor has kind of reminded me of someone I worked with a long time ago. She was in her 40s then, never married, never had a relationship, lived a very quiet life alone. She had no television, so had no idea what the rest of us were talking about, didn't understand and some people made fun of her behind her back for the way she dressed, spoke, mannerisms etc. So I can believe that Eleanor could be unworldly and innocent.

Her "relationship" with Declan was heartbreaking. She just didnt know it could be other than that way until Raymond pointed it out. And her comments about human kindness, loving touch and gentleness - not having experienced these things were just so sad.

Yay! My little Bro bought me this book for my birthday and I've just started it today.

Like NinjagoNinja I was really annoyed with the ending when it had been such a big part of the storyline.

And yes there were some inconsistencies with her social awareness etc.

Overall though, I did enjoy it. I saw a lot of myself in Eleanor, and I found comfort in the fact that she managed to open up to her therapist. It's actually made me start looking for one myself to deal with some entirely different issues.

BakedBeans I thought that too at first, but it's actually a huge and irritating plot twist (trying not to post anything too specific as some posters haven't read it yet)

Eleanor has kind of reminded me of someone I worked with a long time ago. She was in her 40s then, never married, never had a relationship, lived a very quiet life alone. She had no television, so had no idea what the rest of us were talking about, didn't understand and some people made fun of her behind her back for the way she dressed, spoke, mannerisms etc. So I can believe that Eleanor could be unworldly and innocent

Eleanor was in foster care from age 10 ; she went to university; she has a television; she buys a daily newspaper; she works for a company that does some sort of creative work; she uses a computer at work; she shops in Tesco. She is 30 and it was set in the present, not a long time ago

The things Eleanor didn't know about made her seem like some sort of Rip van Winkle character or if she locked up somewhere.

Why did she have a social worker at her age? Is that standard for a child who has been in care?

leslieknope I’m puzzled! I’ll need to see if I can find out on good reads

Yes Lass it's perfectly possible that she would be socially inept, but it would be practically impossible to be so ignorant of those things unless you never left the house!

Lass totally agree my take on it same as yours. Was ok, didn't love it, felt Eleanor implausible and didn't ring true. Also enjoyed the pieces on loneliness though.

I gallopped through the book but ultimately found it a bit ... silly. I didn't find Eleanor a convincing character and the relationship with Raymond wasn't believable either. Kind of cliched?
I can say truthfully that it was written in such a way that I couldn't put it down and wanted to know what happened next, and there were some touching bits like the visit to Raymond's mother. But at the end I was just annoyed and irritated by the woman. I charity-shopped the book immediately when I normally hang on to them or offer them to a friend.
I hope others enjoy it more.

SPOILER ALERT LOOK AWAY NOW IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE BOOK

Did anyone else wonder that there is more of Eleanor's past to be revealed ? Is it possible that it was Eleanor who did the bad thing rather than the person who Eleanor tells us did the bad thing? The newspaper cuttings reported the immediate event- there might have been more revealed later. Is Eleanor an even more unreliable narrator than she seems at face value? Where did she get her degree? Why at over 30 does she still see a social worker?

LassWiADelicateAir

You have broken my brain. Please ask this in the web chat. I didn’t even think about the social worker in her thirties.

I really liked her and Raymond and hoped for a burgeoning romance. Definitely didn’t need the twist.

Lass - I thought the same thing, that perhaps it had been an accident and that’s why her mum ‘speaks’ so harshly to her, because although she has blanked it out, her subconscious knows the truth. I honestly thought that was the twist that had been mentioned on here and though “well it’s not much of a twist, as it’s so obvious!”

I did enjoy the book and liked her as a character - her forthright no nonsense literal approach to life was quite endearing, although I imagine annoying to be on thbe receiving end!

I rarely manage a book within a week, but this one I did, so I’ll take that as a success as it kept me wanting to know more.

It's not implausible for a person with a serious mental health issue to have a social worker well into adulthood-(though not likely with current cuts and they would usually work alongside a mental health support team that would see the person more regularly). But they do come and review once a year and if you are fine in between you wouldn't seen them much more than that. It doesn't quite ring true as they would have discharged her case as she was functioning fairly well but I'm giving the author some poetic licence.

Bakedbeans, I agree - the newspaper articles have been bugging me since I finished the book. The dates don't make sense, yet it seems so unlikely that a glaring 'error' like that could have been made. Please post if you ever discover an explanation!

Off to check the dates. I didn't spot anything

I'm not seeing what is wrong with the dates. Eleanor is 30. She was born in 1987 and the fire happened when she was 10 in 1997.

The dates of the articles and the stories, Lass, right at the end.

liverpool am glad it’s not just me!

5th August and 28 September 1997- 20 years ago when Eleanor was 10.

Sorry I'm being thick but what is the glaring error/mistake in the dates?

The first article about the fire is dated 5 August. The second one is dated 28 September, but says 'the bodies recovered from the scene of last week's house fire.......'. Which was more than a month before, not a week before. All I can think is that it should say 'last month's house fire', but mistakes like that bug me. I should be a proof reader!

Mine says last month so they must've corrected it.

Yep my hardback version has the first article as 5 August 1997 and the second one, referring to ‘last week’s’ fire as 28 September 1997.

I have the kindle version too I’ll need to go and have a look and see if it changed!

My Kindle version has "last month's".