Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine

Reese's Book Club (A Novel)

By: Gail Honeyman

Narrated by: Cathleen McCarron

Number-one New York Times best-seller and the perfect holiday gift.

A Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick

"Beautifully written and incredibly funny, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is about the importance of friendship and human connection. I fell in love with Eleanor, an eccentric and regimented loner whose life beautifully unfolds after a chance encounter with a stranger; I think you will fall in love, too!" (Reese Witherspoon)

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.

Soon to be a major motion picture produced by Reese Witherspoon, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is the smart, warm, and uplifting 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.

©2017 Gail Honeyman (P)2017 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Move over, Ove (in Fredrik Backman's A Man Called Ove) - there's a new curmudgeon to love." (Booklist)

"Eleanor Oliphant is a truly original literary creation: funny, touching, and unpredictable. Her journey out of dark shadows is absolutely gripping." (Jojo Moyes, New York Times best-selling author of Me Before You)

"Narrator Cathleen McCarron's articulated British accent and studied pacing lend weight to Eleanor's apparent alienation from the world - and her immediate charm to listeners.... While supporting characters are well defined with distinct voices and accents, McCarron especially shines in setting the story's emotional tone." (AudioFile)

Outstanding

I LOVED this book! I loved the characters, particularly Eleanor, and gentle Raymond. Made me cry and laugh. Didn't want it to end....

Absolutely Beautiful

Stories like this don't come around that often . Everything about it is beautiful . The personalities, the storyline , the relationships, and of course impeccable narration. Unpredictable down to the last minute. Don't miss this sweet, emotional, and extremely well written book!

First audio book and I loved it!!

Beautiful story. Fantastic details. Utterly charming yet deep and rich. Narrator was perfect. I don't typically write reviews, but I loved this audio book too much to not share! Highly recommend.

Great story but heed the trigger warning

The story and the performance of this book are stellar. The author very poignantly expresses the anguish and depression of the main character, which can be triggering as other reviewers have mentioned. If you are going through a time that is unsettling, be sure that you can handle the weight of hearing your inner demons vocalized before reading this. For everyone else, this book is an entertaining and well written insight into the world of the socially awkward and depressed. (I am giving this 4 stars overall because I was going through a hard time when I read this and it was a very heavy book for me to get through. I am still glad that I read it and am planning on reading it again now that I have moved on from my previous situation).

Not what I normally read, but glad I did.

After listening to this story, I wanted to hug everybody I encountered. It reminded me that there are so many out there who don't get enough human touch. Being a real friend is sometimes nothing more than just checking in and letting them know you care. All people have something worth getting to know. Friendship is patience that rewards both individuals in the end.

Beautifully performed.

Breathtakingly Beautiful

This is one of the best novels of the 21st Century. Eleanor Oliphant is an enigma from the first page. Childlike, she is able to hold down a job while drinking copious amounts of vodka. Socially inept without seeming to realize it, she lives alone and friendless.

Two events change her life: She develops an adolescent crush on a rock singer and she, along with her co-worker, Raymond, witness an older man, Sammy, having a heart attack on a sidewalk. Raymond rushes to assist while Eleanor simply follows his instructions. Assuming that Eleanor is as concerned as he is, Raymond asks her to come along on a visit to the man in hospital.

This hospital visit is a catalyst for Eleanor to expand her narrow life. Her crush on the singer prompts her to do things which are well known to most females in the developed world - manicures, haircuts, and fashion. These scenes are both hilarious and agonizing as her knowledge of life beyond her lonely apartment and her job as a payroll clerk is so bizarre that those with whom she comes into contact think she's just being funny.

She meets Raymond's family and Sammy's family and finds herself included in family events as alien to her experience as though she had been raised by wolves in Siberia.

Although the reader understands that Eleanor has experienced something horrific in her childhood and that her mother, whom she never sees but does talk with, remains a large and malevolent presence in her.

This story is so compelling, so astonishing. Get it.

Loved this stiry

Great character evolution in course of story. Two main characters very likable and real. Did not expect to like it as much as I did. Could see a movie with this story.

Very Good, But Not So Much For Me

I totally appreciated the writing and the narration, but I never really connected with the main character of Eleanor. For just as she set herself apart from people and society, I had a hard time relating to her struggles. I understand that she is not a totally sympathetic character, but feeling sorry for someone is not the same as sympathizing.
Also, I found the subject of clinical depression to be too clinical. What Eleanor experienced was sort of explained in a textbook manner as opposed to the character's emotional life.

SPOILER ALERTS:
And the build up of her obsession with the musician was dropped too quickly. After such a long time of her attention and focus, to have her suddenly come to a realization was very anticlimactic.
I'm also not sure how I felt about the imaginary mother. I mean we were asked to accept that Eleanor was so disfunctional that she would hallucinate. END OF SPOILER ALERTS.

But still, definitely good writing and excellent narration.

not Ove, but a colorful character

I liked it, didn't love it,but I liked it. it was just one of those easy to listen to books with characters you could root for.

fantastic but tragic story!

This book was a page Turner!
I couldn't stop listening and reading because I wanted to see what will happen.