Spotting him (and immediately identifying him as ideal husband material) seems entirely by chance, just as she happens to be walking down the street with a newly-met co-worker (Raymond Gibbons) when they encounter an elderly man (Sammy Thom) in distress. The catalyst for her social stepping-out is a bizarre crush (think: stalker-style) on a rock star she happens to see perform. But the novel’s real project is teasing Eleanor out of social isolation. Set in Glasgow, Scotland, Honeyman’s novel offers its reader a glimpse of the UK systems of healthcare and foster care (it reminded me a bit of A Man Called Ove reflecting the Swedish social systems). Normal human interaction has not been her everyday experience. There is a darkness in Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine that surprised me, in part because I wasn’t looking for it and also because Eleanor herself treats it so casually then again, it is her account, and after many years living in social isolation, how could she treat her story as anything other than ordinary. It becomes quickly apparent that Eleanor Oliphant is not completely fine. Eleanor Oliphant is certainly a socially-awkward, vocabulary-rich, first-person narrator, but her story is not just a witty one.

I imagined it to be The Rosie Project meets Bridget Jones Diary. Gail Honeyman’s Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine: a novel (2017) has been on my radar for the two years since its publication.

Eleanor oliphant review