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Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine

By Gail Honeyman

352 pages

Published in 2017 by Penguin Books

The plot of Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is almost a cliché of romance novels and high school movies – the neglected and sometimes shunned Plain Jane that blooms as she opens herself up to love.

That may be too harsh. It might be better to say that in writing Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, Gail Honeyman works from a relatively recent sub-genre that is best exemplified by the “Bridget Jones” novels.

But I’m happy to say that there is a lot more going on than just that.

The main character, for one. The novel is written in the first person. Eleanor, the narrator, begins her story without any sense of how she sounds or appears. She is intelligent and well educated. She is also extremely judgmental. Her sheltered childhood has traumatized her to the point that she seems like a Victorian woman with Asperger’s transported into the 20th century. It is this perspective that makes her lovable and relatable and provides for a stream of laugh-out-loud interchanges throughout the book.

There is also quite a bit of satire throughout – targeting everything from office politics to wedding rituals to hipster clothing and bikini waxes. And there is a darker story that runs behind it – of childhood and other abuse. But to Honeyman’s credit, this is never overdone. It adds some depth, but no more than the plot could bear.

I wouldn’t call Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine  a novel for the ages – but at the least, it is smartly funny entertainment, and at its best it reminded me of a Jane Austen novel. Which is about as good as novel writing gets.

 

Critical Reviews 

“A charmer… satisfyingly quirky.” (Janet Maslin in The New York Times)

“This wacky, charming novel… draws you in with humor, then turns out to contain both a suspenseful subplot and a sweet romance…. Hilarious and moving.” (People)

“Sweet and satisfying, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine will speak to introverts who have ever felt a little weird about their place in the world.” (Bustle)

“Debut author Honeyman expertly captures a woman whose inner pain is excruciating and whose face and heart are scarred, but who still holds the capacity to love and be loved. Eleanor’s story will move readers.” (Publishers Weekly)

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Operation Finale (2018) on Netflix

Directed by Chris Weitz

Starring Ben Kingsley, Oscar Isaac, and Lior Raz

Operation Finale – considered to be a remake of the 1979 film The House on Garibaldi Street – is based on a true story: In the 1960s, a group of Israeli Mossad officers traveled to Argentina to find and capture Adolph Eichmann, “the architect of the Final Solution,” and bring him to Israel, where he would be tried publicly for his war crimes. (Mossad is the national intelligence agency of Israel.)

Why I watched it: It provides some insights into something I was always fascinated by, but never researched: the community of Nazis that fled to Argentina after WWII.

What I doubted: Although based on real events, some elements of the plot seemed unlikely. I suspect they were introduced to increase the suspense.

What I believed: During his week-long interrogation, Eichmann was not responsive to the intimidation of five of his six interlocutors, but yielded finally to the softer approach of the sixth. This corresponds to what I’ve read about the ineffectiveness of torture as a method of interrogation.

What was brave about it: It addresses the question of whether a soldier has responsibility over and culpability for his actions during a war – and if so, to what extent. (The same theme was explored in The Spy Who Came in From the Cold.)

What was not so brave about it: In this case, the soldier in question was Adolph Eichmann. His defense – that he was just following orders – was presented, but without strength behind it. It was a straw-man defense, too easily pushed over. That can work in terms of the horizontality of the plot (the bad guy gets his just deserts), but it didn’t work on a philosophical level. I found myself wishing that the character had been given more and better lines, so that the antithetical argument could have been more strongly argued.

 

Interesting Facts 

* While filming, Ben Kingsley kept a photo of Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel on set to remind himself of his responsibility for historical accuracy. He also did this while filming Schindler’s List, but with a photo of Anne Frank.

* Hannah Arendt, a film about the life of the German-Jewish philosopher, picks up where Operation Finale leaves off and offers an in-depth look at Eichmann’s trial from Arendt’s perspective.

 

Critical Reviews 

* “As a more complete retelling of a particular moment of history… the film is a diverting watch, anchored with enough of Weitz’s intriguing personal touches to keep it from feeling like a glorified History Channel special.” (The Atlantic)

* “Despite clichéd depictions of Nazi atrocities, the movie persuasively evokes, with its wealth of details, the slender threads on which historical events – and historical truth – depend.” (The New Yorker)

* “A well-made spy thriller replete with scenes of secret surveillance, faked passports, and hairbreadth escapes.” (Seattle Times)

You can watch the trailer here.

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