Here’ my book review of Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman.
Of course, she’s not – fine, that is. This isn’t a spoiler. You’d have to suspect as much from the outset. As one of my screenwriting mentors was fond of saying, “No one wants to see The Village of the Happy People.”
Soon after sitting down with this novel, I picked up on its homage to the themes of the book that spawned the contemporary chick-lit genre, Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding (1996). Bridget’s story owes its aspirational plot to Pride and Prejudice, the 1813 romance by Jane Austen. Both books follow what literary critics have since termed the marriage plot. That is, the female main character’s overwhelming and obsessive goal is to meet and marry the man of her dreams – or, at least, someone who will care for her forever, giving her the kind attention, comfort, and – most important, social standing – that a woman of her fine sensibilities deserves.
[Aside] In counterpoint, Jeffrey Eugenides wrote The Marriage Plot (2011) to examine (and not satirically) whether the marriage plot applies at all to the young people of contemporary society. It’s a fascinating alternative romance, involving a set of relationships that go at least four ways. But other than demonstrating that the old rules don’t apply, Eugenides offers no prescriptive message for the future.
But back to poor Eleanor. She’s a young, highly intelligent, single woman in the urban society of today’s Glasgow. She holds a sensible and reliable job as an accountant in a small graphic design firm. She calls the designers “the creatives.” They are trendy and self-confident. Her mates regard her as lackluster and back-office.
Eleanor tells her story in the first person, confessing her foibles, her aspirations, and her hangups. She believes she is flawed both physically and emotionally, but she persists in her belief that she is, overall, fine – coping nicely. Her goals seem limited and achievable – until she develops a crush on a handsome musician. He’s a local struggling artist who already has something of a name and a rep. They’ve never met. She admires him from a distance, until her following him verges on outright stalking.
Meanwhile, Eleanor has developed a real, albeit awkward, friendship with Raymond, a geeky schlump at the office. He seems much more interested in her than she is in him.
Do you have enough clues so far? You’d be right in suspecting that Eleanor’s story isn’t just another retelling of Bridget’s. You’d also rightly suspect – and I’ll stop short of spoilers here – that the rock star will be less than stellar and the schlump will be surprisingly sympathetic.
But it’s not just a relationship story, regardless of its homage to the marriage plot. Eleanor has serious issues as chilling as today’s grimmest headlines, and she’s in denial about how well she’s coped. How she eventually confronts the conflicts in her own psyche will be found in Gail Honeyman’s ultimately devious and unsuspected twists of plot.
Woody Allen meets Nick Hornby in this hilarious beach read. Gerald Everett Jones, who is every bit as clever as Larry David (and has more hair!), has created a witty, literate George Costanza for us to savor. NBC, are you paying attention? — Paula Berinstein, producer and host of The Writing Show podcast