Audiobook Review: Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
Another 5 star read. What is happening?!
My Thoughts:
I listened to Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine on audio and the narrator, Cathleen McCarron, was a perfect match for Eleanor and her escapades. She does beautiful things with the words and I could listen to her accent all day. If you’re an audio fan snap this one up!
Eleanor is a quirky lady. She lives a solitary life and follows the same routine day after day, week after week, and year after year. She goes to work, she comes home. She is blunt and says whatever comes to mind. Maybe because of this, she has no friends. She does not socialize. On Wednesday she receives her toxic phone call from “Mummy” which always leaves her feeling worse for it. And on Friday she gets takeout and 3 bottles of booze to help her get through the long, lonely stretch of the weekend.
Then one day she has to call IT because her computer isn’t working properly and she meets Raymond. Now don’t worry it’s not what you’re thinking. This is not a romance and he is not there to sweep her off her feet and make everything all better with his dashing looks and wit. He’s disheveled, he’s average in looks but he’s friendly and, after they save an old man in the street, they become the most unlikeliest of friends and Eleanor’s social world expands just a little. Raymond doesn’t care that Eleanor is strange and blunt. He enjoys her company and she, much to her surprise, allows herself to enjoy his. But Eleanor has some deep dark painful things she must deal with before she is able to fully engage in the world.
I’m not going to spoil another thing. Just go read this if you haven’t already. It’s ugly, it’s wickedly funny but never frivolous, it’s painful and sensitive and it’s such a lovely way to spend a few hours. It’ll leave you feeling a little better about the world when you’ve finished and who doesn’t want that?!
Gail Honeyman wrote her debut novel, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, while working a full-time job, and it was shortlisted for the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize as a work in progress. She has also been awarded the Scottish Book Trust's Next Chapter Award 2014, was longlisted for BBC Radio 4's Opening Lines, and was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize. She lives in Glasgow.
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman, Narrated by Cathleen McCarron
Audiobook Fiction, 11 Hours
Released May 2017
Amazon ♦ Goodreads
Audiobook Fiction, 11 Hours
Released May 2017
Amazon ♦ Goodreads
No one's ever told Eleanor that life should be better than fine.
Meet Eleanor Oliphant: She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she's thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy.
But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office. When she and Raymond together save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen on the sidewalk, the three become the kinds of friends who rescue one another from the lives of isolation they have each been living. And it is Raymond's big heart that will ultimately help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one.
Smart, warm, uplifting, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine is the story of an out-of-the-ordinary heroine whose deadpan weirdness and unconscious wit make for an irresistible journey as she realizes. . .
The only way to survive is to open your heart.
Meet Eleanor Oliphant: She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she's thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy.
But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office. When she and Raymond together save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen on the sidewalk, the three become the kinds of friends who rescue one another from the lives of isolation they have each been living. And it is Raymond's big heart that will ultimately help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one.
Smart, warm, uplifting, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine is the story of an out-of-the-ordinary heroine whose deadpan weirdness and unconscious wit make for an irresistible journey as she realizes. . .
The only way to survive is to open your heart.
My Thoughts:
I listened to Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine on audio and the narrator, Cathleen McCarron, was a perfect match for Eleanor and her escapades. She does beautiful things with the words and I could listen to her accent all day. If you’re an audio fan snap this one up!
Eleanor is a quirky lady. She lives a solitary life and follows the same routine day after day, week after week, and year after year. She goes to work, she comes home. She is blunt and says whatever comes to mind. Maybe because of this, she has no friends. She does not socialize. On Wednesday she receives her toxic phone call from “Mummy” which always leaves her feeling worse for it. And on Friday she gets takeout and 3 bottles of booze to help her get through the long, lonely stretch of the weekend.
Then one day she has to call IT because her computer isn’t working properly and she meets Raymond. Now don’t worry it’s not what you’re thinking. This is not a romance and he is not there to sweep her off her feet and make everything all better with his dashing looks and wit. He’s disheveled, he’s average in looks but he’s friendly and, after they save an old man in the street, they become the most unlikeliest of friends and Eleanor’s social world expands just a little. Raymond doesn’t care that Eleanor is strange and blunt. He enjoys her company and she, much to her surprise, allows herself to enjoy his. But Eleanor has some deep dark painful things she must deal with before she is able to fully engage in the world.
I’m not going to spoil another thing. Just go read this if you haven’t already. It’s ugly, it’s wickedly funny but never frivolous, it’s painful and sensitive and it’s such a lovely way to spend a few hours. It’ll leave you feeling a little better about the world when you’ve finished and who doesn’t want that?!
A Bit About the Author
Gail Honeyman wrote her debut novel, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, while working a full-time job, and it was shortlisted for the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize as a work in progress. She has also been awarded the Scottish Book Trust's Next Chapter Award 2014, was longlisted for BBC Radio 4's Opening Lines, and was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize. She lives in Glasgow.
Do you have a favorite novel with a quirky lead? I must read them all now!
I actually bought this on audio last year. I so need to bump this up. It sounds wonderful. Great review!
ReplyDeleteThe audio was wonderful. Once you start it you won't want to stop!
DeleteI don't know that I was even interested in this before reading your review but now I want it. Heck, Eleanor sounds like my kind of gal - what's wrong with pizza and booze? And personally I could do with a few less phone calls from my mother. I love her but....... I've tried to get my husband to tell her I ran away but he won't. Gonna go reserve this from my library!
ReplyDeleteHahaha! I think you're going to love it, Barb!
DeleteThis one is on my To Read list, so I'm very glad to know it's such a good read! :)
ReplyDeleteIt was most excellent. I think you'll really enjoy it, Lark.
DeleteI loved this book. There were quite a few surprises and Eleanor was just a wonderful character. It is good to know that the audio is well done. Great review!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Carole. You're right. It took so many unexpected turns. I really love it when a book can surprise me like that. The cover looked so innocuous and it just wowed me!
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