In Gail Honeyman's Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, Eleanor is a conventional thirty-year-old woman. She goes to work each morning at her regular office job and returns home each night to her modest apartment. Despite her ordinary lifestyle, Eleanor Oliphant has one fatal flaw; she is completely and utterly alone. Eleanor does not have any family or friends, no one to turn to, and no shoulder to cry on. Her time off is spent binge-drinking vodka and doing crossword puzzles on her living room floor, yearning for the next numbing workday.

During an obligatory work night out, Eleanor spots a local musician on stage, a man whom she instantly deems the love of her life. She believes that they are destined to be together. He is an active local musician; thus, Eleanor begins a thorough investigation (with help from the internet) to prepare herself for her “husband-to-be”.

One odd day after work, while Eleanor is distracted by her quest to woo this musician, she runs into Raymond, an IT worker from her office. As they are crossing the street together, they stumble upon an old man who has collapsed with a heart attack and rush to help him.

This unexpected rescue mission brings together Eleanor and Raymond. As they bond over the man’s life they saved, she begins to accept his social invites, even going as far as meeting Raymond’s mother, all in the name of preparing herself for her “future husband”. Eleanor’s rock-hard exterior slowly disseminates as she realizes the fulfillment that comes from genuine human connection.

One night, Eleanor plans a meet-cute with her “future husband” at a local gig. While she stands in the audience, overlooked and inconsequential to this snobby musician, the absurdness of the situation crashes down on her. In the aftermath of the evening, Eleanor questions her self-worth and attempts to drink herself to death.

After several days of skipping work, Raymond barges into Eleanor’s apartment while she is in and out of an alcohol-induced slumber. He urges her to seek help. In the next few weeks, Eleanor reluctantly visits the doctor, gets diagnosed with clinical depression, takes a leave of absence from work, and finds a therapist.

Readers learn that Eleanor wasn’t always alone; she had a little sister named Marianne whom she loved and cared for deeply. When Eleanor was ten years old, her physically and emotionally abusive mother started a house fire in an attempt to kill her daughters. Eleanor’s little sister didn’t make it out. A young Eleanor, broken and alone, was sent into a distressing cycle of foster care until she was 17.

Eleanor’s mother passed away in the fire as well. However, readers are unaware of this until the very end of the story when it is revealed that Eleanor’s weekly phone calls with her mom were a figment of her imagination. Her mother’s endless abuse was imprinted in her mind, and even after her death, Eleanor manifested her mother’s voice that only taunted and ridiculed her. 

Through friendship, therapy, and a furry companion, Eleanor begins to pick up the pieces of her past as she comes to terms with the childhood trauma that inevitably defined her adult life.

Eleanor’s journey encompasses many of the fears and doubts we have while stepping into adulthood. Will I be good at my job? Will my co-workers like me? Will I have friends? Will I be loved, or even liked? Will I be alone? Will it get easier?

Early in the novel, Eleanor believes that she is not whole without a man in her life. The moment she finds someone she is attracted to, desire controls her, and all rationale is abandoned. Eleanor reverts to child-like behaviours, like pining after a celebrity crush, as she mistakes her sudden infatuation for true love. When an individual’s entire life is merely a Google search away, obsession becomes too easy. Thus, Eleanor quickly cultivates a false sense of connection and intimacy, falling deeper into this one-sided love affair.

Gail Honeymoon’s writing is smooth, logical, and blunt, yet readers are kept on their toes until the very end. The novel’s conclusion didn’t give away much about Eleanor and Raymond’s relationship, there’s still plenty of room for interpretation. More than anything else, they are friends. Raymond appeared to Eleanor, not as her other half or soulmate, but simply as someone that cared about her. Ultimately, Eleanor’s longing for her missing piece was never romantic or sexual, it was the desire to have a friend, like Raymond, with whom she could share a little part of her life.

“Raymond walked quickly, and I began to worry that I wouldn’t be able to keep pace with him in my new boots. I noticed him glance at me, and then he slowed his steps to match mine. I realized that such small gestures—the way his mother had made me a cup of tea after our meal without asking, remembering that I didn’t take sugar, the way Laura had placed two little biscuits on the saucer when she brought me coffee in the salon—such things could mean so much. I wondered how it would feel to perform such simple deeds for other people.”

Eleanor grew up with severe abuse and unimaginable loss; she was tossed from one place to another as a child with no place to call home. Thus, as an adult, Eleanor is a creature of habit. After a childhood of displacement, she finds comfort in the known. However, she bravely reminds us that there is value in leaving our every day. When we venture outside of our comfort zones, we stumble across glimmers of hope, warmth, and connection with the world and its people. Therein lies the beauty of this story as readers get to occupy Eleanor’s mind for a short while as she slowly lets in the light and finds her worth beyond the walls she’s built.