Merle
“If someone asks you how you are, you are meant to say FINE. You are not meant to say that you cried yourself to sleep last night because you hadn't spoken to another person for two consecutive days. FINE is what you say.” Eleanor might be fine, but I - after finishing this book - am not. I went into the book without too high expectations because I heard many mixed reviews from my friends. The first couple pages were... strange. Eleanor is a peculiar women; she speaks and behaves in a good manner, but that makes her seem very old-fashioned. She doesn't have any friends, nor the desire to have them. She has routines and sticks to them. As somebody with a huge interest in psychology, I knew there had to be some issues or previous trauma involved for her to behave like that. I just didn't know WHAT exactly. The more the book continues, the more we learn about Eleanor: she has scars and bruises, but only remembers a fire. She has to drown herself in vodka after talking to her Mummy on the phone. She lived in foster homes. One day at work, she requires help from IT and discovers that the person working there is a new employee. Raymond. The two of them slowly start to become friends; and when Sammy Thom collapses on the street and they call an ambulance, they get included in his family; attending all sorts of events together. In Raymond, Eleanor finally finds a true friend. Along the way, she realizes that she, in fact, is not fine, and with the help of some people she starts to dig deeper in her memories and tries to see beyond the fires of her childhood trauma. This book is extremely well written, and gives us an insight to Eleanor's thoughts and opinions; so that we understand her "odd" behavior better. A book about social norms, troubled pasts and not fitting in. The ending left me torn, and very shocked. But also hopeful, because Eleanor is confronting her problems. I truly recommend this book.
