The Official Book Club Guide: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. Kathryn Cope
Mummy sneers at her daughter’s promotion, Eleanor is surprised to find her new office manager role challenging and rewarding. One day, as she waits in the café for Raymond to arrive, their usual waiter, Mikey, tells her that he is leaving his job. He explains that his girlfriend has cancer and he needs to look after his baby daughter. Eleanor instinctively places a consoling hand on Mikey’s arm and is surprised at the sincerity with which he thanks her. When Raymond arrives, he tells her that Sammy Thom died of a heart attack at the weekend.
Eleanor and Raymond go to Sammy’s funeral together and then on to the refreshments at a nearby hotel. When Eleanor goes in search of Laura to offer her condolences, she spots her sitting in a window seat on Raymond’s lap. Suddenly wanting to be alone, Eleanor ends up drinking vodka in the hotel bar. Raymond arrives just as the lecherous barman is propositioning Eleanor and takes her back to his flat. As they watch a film and share a bottle of wine, he asks Eleanor how her face came to be scarred. Eleanor tells Raymond that she was in a house fire when she was ten years old. She goes on to explain that she spent the rest of her childhood in foster care and children’s homes until the council housed her in her flat. Saddened by the story, Raymond tells her that she can talk to him any time as they are ‘pals’. Eleanor realises that Raymond is her first friend.
Eleanor buys a ticket for Johnnie Lomond’s final gig with the Pilgrim Pioneers. Wanting to check out the venue in advance, she asks Raymond to accompany her to see another band there. Agents of Insanity turn out to be a death metal band and when they start to play Eleanor rushes out of the club with her hands over her ears. After laughing about the experience, she and Raymond retire to a more sedate pub.
The day of Johnnie Lomond’s gig arrives, and Eleanor excitedly anticipates how his love will change her life.
Part Two – Bad Days
Eleanor wakes up naked on her living-room floor. Surrounded by empty vodka bottles, she has lined up pain killers, a kitchen knife and drain cleaner on the table.
The day of the gig started badly when Eleanor discovered that her beloved houseplant, Polly, had died. Nevertheless, she went to the gig and stood at the front. When Johnnie failed to notice her, however, she realised that she has been nurturing a childish crush on a man she knows nothing about. Eleanor’s disillusionment is compounded when, partway through the gig, Johnnie drops his trousers to “entertain” the ladies in the audience. Towards the end of the gig, dry ice began to fill the room, reminding Eleanor of the house fire. Hearing her own screams and those of someone else, she rushed outside and vomited, then returned home to end things.
Back in the present, Eleanor throws some clothes on and staggers to the shop to buy more vodka, hoping that she will die of alcohol poisoning before having to resort to the other options. The shopkeeper, Mr Dewan, looks concerned and tells her to take care of herself. She returns to the flat and drinks more but is woken by the sound of Raymond knocking insistently on her door. Raymond comforts Eleanor, nurses her back to health and cleans up her flat. He tells her that if she cannot confide in him, she should go to see her doctor.
Diagnosing depression, Eleanor’s doctor signs her off work. Eleanor also reluctantly agrees to see a counsellor: Maria Temple. Eleanor initially judges Maria to be an idiot and is reluctant to talk to her at all. She resists Maria’s attempts to glean information on her mother, remembering how Mummy punished her when she once spoke to a teacher about her. When Maria tells Eleanor to imagine that an empty chair is her mother, however, Eleanor begs the empty chair not to ‘hurt us’.
Eleanor continues to meet Raymond for lunch and tells him that her mother is in ‘“a bad place, for bad people”’. She also explains that Oliphant is not her real name, as she was given a new identity when she was a child. Eleanor insists, however, that she cannot remember the details of the crime her mother committed. Raymond offers to conduct some Internet research but Eleanor tells him that she is not ready to face the truth.
When Eleanor mentions that her mother lived in many exotic places as a young woman (Tangier, Macau, Lahore, Mumbai, Taipei etc.) Raymond questions whether this is really feasible. Eleanor wonders why this has never occurred to her and, the next time she speaks to Mummy, begins to question some of her tall tales. When Eleanor mentions that she is seeing a counsellor, Mummy becomes agitated and insists that she mustn’t discuss her childhood with anyone.
Eleanor bumps into Laura in the street and the glamorous hairdresser admits that she is dating Raymond. When Laura says that she will pass on Eleanor’s good wishes to Raymond, Eleanor finds herself becoming annoyed. She curtly tells Laura that there is no need as she recently had lunch with Raymond herself.
Continuing to see Maria Temple, Eleanor begins to find the sessions surprisingly therapeutic. She tells Maria that she never knew her father and Mummy always implied that her daughter’s conception was the result of rape. She also describes the way her mother isolated her from other children by insisting that they were inappropriate companions for her daughter. When Maria asks if there has ever been anyone in her life who has loved her unconditionally, Eleanor thinks she remembers someone from her childhood and becomes distressed. In their next counselling session, Maria asks Eleanor to recall the events just before the house fire. Eleanor regresses back to childhood. In a little girl’s voice she tells Maria that Mummy has had enough of them and asks where Marianne is.
Raymond surprises Eleanor by presenting her with a stray cat. The cat’s fur is patchy with bald spots and Raymond explains that his flatmate rescued her from a burning dustbin. Eleanor flourishes under the responsibility of loving and caring for the cat, who she calls Glen after her favourite brand of vodka. Although she is often tempted to drown her sorrows after her counselling sessions, she resists the temptation of alcohol as she wants to be fit to care for her feline companion.
When Raymond next visits, bringing his mother along to see Glen, he presents Eleanor with a tin of gourmet cat food and a fancy cake, insisting that she deserves to ‘have nice things’. After they leave, Eleanor reads a newspaper that Raymond has left behind. Inside is an article celebrating the recent success of the Pilgrim Pioneers who have cracked the American charts following their acrimonious split with their former lead singer. Eleanor realises that she has no interest in what Johnnie Lomond has been doing since leaving the band. She decides to line Glen’s litter tray with the newspaper.
Eleanor meets Raymond for Sunday lunch and he confides that he doesn’t think he will be seeing Laura again as she isn’t his ‘type’. He also admits that he has researched the house fire online and printed off the results. Eleanor snappily tells Raymond that she isn’t ready but immediately feels guilty about hurting his feelings. They apologise to each other and, when Raymond holds her hands, Eleanor finds the sensation ‘extremely pleasant.’
In her next counselling session, Eleanor is finally able to admit that Marianne was her little sister, although she is still not ready to confront what happened to her. She then receives an unexpected visit from Sammy’s son, Keith. Keith gives Eleanor Sammy’s red sweater, as he knows that she admired it on the day his father collapsed in the street. When Keith has left, Eleanor puts the sweater on.
Eleanor takes the bus to her counselling session and notices that her fellow passengers seem to be avoiding sitting next to her. When a woman gets on the bus and chooses to sit next to a ‘madman’ with ‘no socks on’ instead of her, Eleanor concludes that she must give off an air of madness. Spotting Eleanor’s distress, the sockless man comforts her with a few friendly words and a pat on the arm. Realising that, despite his lack of socks, the man isn’t mad at all, Eleanor sees that she is also guilty of forming judgemental opinions about other people. In a moment of clarity, she realises that the judgemental voice in her head belongs to Mummy and doesn’t express her own feelings.
Eleanor tells Maria Temple that her mother deliberately set their house on fire, intending to kill both her daughters. Maria assures Eleanor that she has nothing to feel guilty about, encouraging her to see herself as a completely different individual from her mother. Eleanor tells Maria that she is going to end all contact with Mummy.
When the counselling session is over, Eleanor meets Raymond and they go for a coffee. After a short dispute with the barista, Eleanor tells Raymond everything