This stems from a lot of her trauma, that you learn about as the narrative unfolds. From there, the three become an unlikely trio.Įleanor has extremely rigid boundaries – the kind of boundaries that would scare off most people. Raymond encourages Eleanor to visit Sammy, despite her being rather reluctant. They call an ambulance and Sammy goes to hospital. When they are out one day, Eleanor and Ray see a man has fallen over – Sammy Thom. Their friendship grows slowly, and turns into something rather beautiful. Rather than running for the hills when he meets her, Raymond offers nonjudgmental help and support. When Eleanor meets Raymond, who works in the IT department at her office, he is not put off by her ‘quirks’.

That is, until, a strange sequence of events opens up her world in ways that she never knew possible. She lives alone, doesn’t really socialise with anyone from work, and her only company is a houseplant.

The novel centres on the story of Eleanor Oliphant, an office worker with a rather uneventful life. No one wants to feel like the odd one out, so no one talks about their loneliness publicly. This silence around loneliness is why I think Honeyman’s novel has been so powerful for so many people. If you’re the odd one out, that only works if you’re famous. As I said above, if you’re lonely, chances are people will think there is something wrong with you. Loneliness is also a bit of a cultural taboo. I don’t think we do this because we are inherently evil people – I think we do it because being lonely terrifies us and we don’t want to be reminded of what our lives could look like. We tell ourselves: I have enough on my plate this person is probably crazy if they have no friends why should I care about this random person… When we see or sense loneliness we run for the hills. People can sense when other people are lonely and rather than reach out to them, we distance ourselves from that person.

Which leads me to ask the question, why is a book about loneliness so popular and powerful? There are talks of the book being made into a film, and it has been a best-seller with over 2.5 million copies sold world-wide. It makes books like Honeyman’s just as relevant today as it was when it was published in 2018. I had talked about loneliness before the global crisis we find ourselves in today, and it feels like there are new levels of loneliness, loss, and struggles that we are dealing with. The opening of Gail Honeyman’s novel Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine has a quote from Olivia Laing’s book Lonely City, which I have reviewed on my blog here. Book cover of Gail Honeyman’s Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine

Gail honeyman books