After beginning therapy, Eleanor reveals to her therapist - and to the reader - that she hasn’t been fine all along: her mother is actually dead, having died in the fire she started to murder Eleanor and her younger sister. While it’s clear from the start that Eleanor is struggling with a mental illness, the extent to which she’s insulated herself from any potential connection slowly begins to take its toll on her. I wanted to show that these small gestures can be completely transformative for the right person at the right time.” I don’t mean anything dramatic just everyday acts or a few thoughtful, carefully chosen words. As Honeyman says, “I wanted to highlight the importance of kindness. And when she and her coworker Raymond find themselves taking an injured old man to the hospital, she finds herself drawn into a strange new world of friendship and emotional intimacy that she never expected. Socially awkward in the extreme, she isolates herself from her coworkers and everyone around her, saving nearly all human contact for intermittent phone conversations with her casually cruel mother, who’s been in jail for nearly all of Eleanor’s life.īut when Eleanor develops a short-lived crush on musician Johnnie Lomond, utterly convinced that they will inevitably fall in love, she thinks she’s found a new lease on life. Holding back tears while finishing Gail Honeyman’s astounding debut novel, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine - and in a restaurant no less - I knew I had to talk with the author.Įleanor Oliphant is, as the title states, completely fine - she’s gainfully employed and has all the creature comforts she could want.

Gail honeyman books in order