Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

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Quite a unique book that I enjoyed reading. Eleanor Oliphant is a peculiar young lady who suffered an abusive childhood at the hands of her mother. We find out towards the end of the book that all her conversations with her mum (who often put her down) were imaginary. She lost her mum and sister in a house fire set by her mum. Her mum intended to kill her and her sister but it didn't go according to plan. Eleanor lives through life with rigid routine, but has her struggles due to loneliness and some type of undiagnosed mental illness (seemingly similar to asperger's). The author uses her peculiarity to make this a comedy, which makes this book quite different from most others. The book has a happy ending - a common theme of the book is the kindness of others. Eleanor's coworker Raymond who liked her awkwardness and persistently helped her, Eleanor's boss who was always complimentary of her and patient with her, her other coworkers who kindly welcomed her back after her suicide attempt. At the end of the book, Eleanor realizes Raymond is the one for her even though there are many habits of his that she doesn't like.

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