Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman is both funny and sad. Eleanor's life is a routine of the same meal deal for work each day and two bottles of vodka for her lonely weekend. Suddenly she is drawn into real life by Raymond the IT man from work, a most unsuitable man as far as Eleanor is concerned. Eleanor has shut out her past and the author cleverly drip feeds snippets of this into chapters and you really want to know what happened in Eleanor's childhood to make her the way she is. I found myself willing for her and Raymond to get together. Her past relationships have been controlling but Eleanor never acts the victim. However, she understands that she is different. People ignore her, think she is crazy. Her way of speaking to people, taking things literally made me think she was on the Asperger's spectrum. It is endearing and funny but people don't know how to react to her. Raymond takes it in his stride.
I love the way things unfold in this story but it is not until the end that everything is revealed and it is a surprise.
It is a heart warming, heartbreaking story of family breakdown, mental health and survival. Definitely one to read.
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