Eleanor Oliphant is an endearing and funny character, rich of nuances, perfectly tridimensional. Her first-person account of life with trauma and mental health issues is so believable that one can really walk in her - most uncomfortable - shoes and understand something important about human nature, loneliness and even the mechanisms that push a person to the edge. This is the main reason why the novel narrowly escaped my "Brain Chewingum" shelf.
Don't get me wrong, I immensely enjoyed the novel, its humour and its levity. Maybe, though, there is a bit too much of the levity for the conclusion to ring authentic. All characters end up being generous, helpful, or at least nice enough to stop bullying Eleanor as soon as she changes haircut and shoes. The boss is understanding, the family of the old man that she and her new friend help is compact in their gratitude and acceptance, her friend Raymond is himself a paragon of patience. Honestly, it is all a bit too much strawberries and cream for the terrible topics of neglect, childhood abuse, loneliness, alcohol abuse, and heavy mental health problems that the novel depicts so well, drily and without melodrama.
That's why that fourth star remains in my pockets. This said, when I think about it, I do have people like Raymond and the other loving, sweet characters in my life, and I am most grateful for it. I also see how Gail Honeyman (what an apt and lovely name!) wanted to depict the dire cinsequences of loneliness and isolation, and the healing quality of connections. Just, she did it with a bit of a heavy hand, and this ended up forcing the plot towards a scarcely believable happy ending, given the premises. I wish life were that easy to mend. Anyway, she is good enough at writing likeable characters to make me happy that they ended up in a good place, no matter how much disbelief I had to suspend to make it happen. Thanks the Muse, she avoided going either full-fledged chick lit romance nor cheap thriller. For that, I am very grateful. ( )

I adored this book. Parts of it were difficult, especially the breakdown scene which had me in floods of tears, but overall it's a funny and moving story and Cathleen McCarron's narration is spot on. I'd be interested to read what survivors of trauma think. ( )

Oh. My. God. (Eleanor would be so disappointed in my use of punctuation here.) This book was amazing. Increasingly heartfelt and hilarious and heartbreaking all at once. The characters were so well written that you fell in love with them. Eleanor is so eloquent and quirky and funny and sad and captivating. I'm so so sad this book had to end. ( )

Mighty fine!
Eleanor Oliphant has good days, bad days and better days. Her life is a strictly timetabled routine – work with a Meal Deal and cryptic crossword at lunchtime, home for pesto, pasta and The Archers, weekends starting with a margherita pizza washed down with wine and litres of vodka. A routine to combat loneliness and being alone. A routine that is begging to be broken.
Narrated in the first person, Eleanor’s life story slowly unfolds with hints to the mystery and darkness shrouding her past present from the start.
Funny and sad, it painfully peels back the layers that Eleanor has carefully encased herself in, stuck down as firmly as her sensible, Velcro-fastening shoes.
Acts of kindness, an ill-conceived infatuation and an unexpected friendship cause Eleanor to realise that she isn’t the guilty, hopeless and unworthy social outcast she believed herself to be but somebody people genuinely admire, respect and care about.
I loved seeing the world through Eleanor’s eyes, her spin on nail bars, clothes shopping, death metal gigs and a Hollywood bikini wax. Her specialness and otherness is endearing and engaging, her lack of off filter absolutely hysterical at times.
Hashtag be kind - to yourself and others. ( )

It was a really good book - I started reading it in the evening and I couldn't stop until I finished it late at night :) Eleanor seems very boring and predictable in the beginning, but in reality is so complicated and deeply suffering person, and her way of dealing with the world is quite unique. I loved the book, it made me both laugh and cry, it was one of the best books I've recently read. ( )