Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

In all the years of book club I can't remember us ever having reviewed a book only out in hardback. It was recommended to me by a fellow train commuter who knew I love reading and whose wife had read it and loved it. So it was me who suggested it to the group without realising it hadn’t made its way to paperback yet. Oops! The local library had a waiting list 9 people long, Amazon wasn’t coming up trumps and none of my Facebook friends had a copy so I resorted to borrowing a copy from my Auntie but had to wait for my mum (also a member of the book club) to read it first before I could indulge.

Lucky for me it was easy to read and so the fact that I hadn’t even set eyes on the book two weeks before the meeting wasn't a problem.

Although I got in to the book really easily it instantly reminded me of The Rosie Project, (an excellent book) and so I found myself a little disappointed that I had read the concept previously. A few of the other members of the group commented on the fact that in addition to Rosie it reminded them of the very excellent A Man Called Ove and I can see the similarities. I also thought it was going to be very predictable – Eleanor would hideously embarrass herself with the Musician before ending up happy ever after with Raymond. Without giving the game away too much, I was wrong. 

Where this book differed, particularly from Rosie, was as one member put it "it's not just about an autistic person dealing with different situations for comedic effect". The book was darker, and Eleanor more flawed than Simsion's Don.

That's not to say there wasn't comedy. I laughed out loud in quite a few places – the taking of the cheese slices to the party as a present because 'men liked cheese' but far from being a purely comedic character Eleanor had depth, I loved her thought processes, her reasoning, I just loved her. 

The group did question why all of the sudden changes occurred from a woman supposedly stuck in the same routine for years. Was it all due to the Sammy incident or had something changed prior to the book (she went to the concert where she first met the Musician which was most unlike her). 

I was slightly uncomfortable with the fact people only seemed to start to like her when she started to change, her clothes, her make up, her hair – do we have to be the same to be acceptable? Honeyman raised this point herself with 'bus bingo' but Raymond didn't seem to care less, and when Eleanor returned to work, the flowers and Bob's reaction all show that maybe it was Eleanor's own perception that everyone didn't like her and she only noticed all the nice things when she became receptive to them.

I loved how the Musician subplot panned out. Eleanor was like a teenager who was experiencing her first crush and whilst I agree with Eleanor's outcome I did feel a bit sorry for the Musician when his band hit the big time – he hadn’t after all done anything bad to Eleanor and it seemed undeserved.

I equally loved how it ended with Eleanor and Raymond and I was at pains to discuss whether romance would spoil their relationship with the group as I find myself genuinely concerned. I loved Raymond, although I did question why he built up such a rapport with Eleanor in the first place. Yes he liked her honesty and he was new at work so didn't know many other people but was that enough for a young man who was single with a life outside of work when Eleanor was so different?  

Honeyman created brilliant tension, a few of us worried that it was Eleanor herself who was responsible for the fire and the way the bombshell about her mother was just subtly dropped into the chapter was outstandingly good writing. 

We all talked about how everyone was in the book was nice which makes such a change to most on the market at the moment, even Laura who had the potential to be a complete bitch and who would have been in any other book was decent. We also thought the book was quite realistic (to a certain point), the counselling, the return to work, the ending with Raymond. it all felt achievable as opposed to her flouncing off to run an advertising firm in London with Raymond in tow having nothing more than a unsettled nights sleep about her past.

I have yet to meet a person who hasn’t liked this book which is a massive thing to say, it's winning awards left right and centre and scored a 9 out of 10 by the group which is our highest score this year. Not only that but it really stands out in a year of average books the group has reviewed. Eleanor will stay with me for a long time. I didn’t love it as much as I did Ove, that book really broke me but when you talk about the characters as though they are real people you know it’s a good one.

Hands up who loves a bit of pesto pasta for tea?!