Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine - Gail Honeyman

Fiction

-Meh-

I kept coming across this book on Pinterest as recommended, so when I found it in the bookstore (used and cheap!) I was rather excited. 

The novel introduces us to Eleanor Oliphant (surprise surprise) and quickly establishes that she's a quirky, weird, middle aged lady.  It's quite tropey. We follow her through her life as she faces disappointments, her past, and forming positive relationships.

This book definitely doesn't shy away from mental health issues. Eleanor has been abused and neglected and has walls a mile thick. She drinks too much, doesn't have a social life to speak of, and misses social cues. She makes an unlikely friend, Raymond, with an equally different co-worker. We're never quite sure if they have a mild romantic interest in each other or if they're just so thrilled to have found a support and a friend that it gets confusing. 

What I liked most about the novel is that Eleanor is relateable for me. While my circumstances may not be exactly the same as hers, I can understand her reactions to many things, and her hesitation to see the value in herself or trusting other people. I also know how much it can help to have a "Raymond", either as a romantic partner or just as an amazing friend. 

Unfortunately, the book was overall disappointing for me. There were so many issues for Eleanor I felt like the author went through and played Psychology Dilbert bingo and didn't fully address any of them. There was so much more that could have been done with this story. I'm not critisicing because neat endings are rare, but this ending just kind of happened. There was no resolution to anything, besides a very anticlimactic "I won't talk to my mom anymore because she's an abusive asshole" moment. The rest we wonder if Eleanor will sort out or not, especially the suicide episode she went through. The reader is left feeling that as long as Eleanor continues to put one foot in front of the other and continue trying, she'll be fine. This is charming, and often times the case in real life, but I needed a little more hope than that for a charachter I was rooting for and related to. 

Not a bad book, but keep your expectations reasonable.

~Becky~

Estuary - Perumal Murugan

Fiction

Read it

I know that as I read and write reviews, I use the word favorite quite often. I simply can't help it - there are so many reasons for having favorites and having them for different reasons. To be quite trite, Perumal Murugan is also a favorite author of mine. I had read One Part Woman and Poonachi previously and greatly enjoyed myself. It's been a joy to watch his writing evolve. The BookWorm clerk - a brilliant salesman and always handing me more books I simply must read - suggested this. As I know I enjoy Murugan, I readily agreed. That and the book cover is beautiful. I'm a sucker for beautiful covers. Please don't inform the BookWorm clerk.

Estuary is a story about a family of Asuras (loosely in mythology creatures that are humanoid with extra powers). A government clerk father, a home making mother, and a college aged, spoiled son. Murugan takes us through a stunningly accessible journey of a family trying to send their son to college and make peace with the new technologies and changing world. The father is the main character, and the one who struggles the most. Their son was born after years of trying and superstitious intervention. As with all parents, he is dismayed to find out that his son is not longer the happy child who wanted all the attention and has now developed strong opinions of his own. The son's ever increasing financial demands and increasing distance cause the father great pain and he struggles to re-connect. As he is introduced to the technologies that his son is most comfortable with, the father is overcome with panic that his most precious son may go down the wrong path and completely wreck his life. After a small mental breakdown, a kind friend brilliantly works with him to see the positive sides that technology can bring and helps him learn to use the things so that it isn't an amorphous scary entity.

The brilliance of Murugan is how accessible he is. Anyone with children can identify easily with the anxiety that these parents feel and how real the fear of technology, losing the child to the wrong path, and losing touch are for every parent. I'm not quite sure why Murugan chose to use Asuras as a theme and he hasn't really clued us in to why this is important. Perhaps it's simply my lack of understanding of Asuras that is the problem. Either which way, I very much understood and empathized with the main character.  It was a breath of fresh air and very refreshing to read after the previous two challenging novels.  His portrayal of college visits and putting young adults in horse harnesses and blinders so that they only study, and how the parents fell in line without thought was particularly brilliant and hilarious.

I cannot wait to see what Murugan has up next. 

Absolutely read it.

~Becky~

Em and the big Hoom - Jerry Pinto

Fiction
Verdict: Read it

I'm not a big believer in reading the back of the book too carefully to see what a novel is about. I'm more of an "Oooh shiny" about the cover type book picker. Meh. I like to take my chances and revel in amazing finds. And the occasional disappointment. Ahem.

I haven't read anything from Jerry Pinto as yet and so new authors (for me) are always exciting. I don't know what I was drawn to on the cover, but it wasn't what I expected it to be, and not in a bad way. 

India has been opening up (at least in pop culture mediums) about many issues, mental health being one of them.  I find this to be a fantastic thing - the more it's in the open, the less....judged it will become. 

Em and the big Hoom is about a Goan Catholic family. A mom, a dad, a son, and a daughter. Only the mom is manic depressive and suicidal occasionally. There's no candy coating, no pretending everything is fine, no glossing over events. Just a family doing it's best to care for and support someone whose brain is not allowing her to function as most people do. It's a powerhouse of a novel. 

Jerry Pinto explores family dynamics, the fine line between disease and personality, genetics, living with a parent who has these issues, and the burden any long term disease places on a family.

This definitely isn't a light, quick read. For someone who generally reads pretty fast, this one took me a a while as I felt I needed to digest the many themes in small chunks as to not get overwhelmed. While I was doing that, I really considered the privilege of the "peek in the window" and what it must be like to actually be in such a situation. 

It's definitely a must read. 

~Becky~

You Beneath Your Skin - Dayamanti Biswas

Fiction
Verdict: Read it.

This novel was my elder daughter's choice. I tend to read things she picks up so long as it's not teen fiction. I'm glad she passed this along, as it was a very interesting book.

The book is about a single mom struggling to raise an autistic son. The plot is loosely centered around her family, as well as a serial rapist/murder suspense plot that runs parallel. The author addresses many many social issues in this book that are usually ignored. Autism/mental health, acid attacks, entitlement, affairs, mixed race relationships and divorce are just some of the issues the author includes in this novel. Most of these issues could take a novel each, but the author does a decent job of weaving them together in a realistic enough manner and showcasing how one family can have many problems across levels.

Unfortunately, tackling so many heavy issues in one book leads to none of them being looked at in more than a general sense. It also leads to a semi-unrealistic situation; this is a lot of issues for one family alone to be dealing with.  The book does drag a little in a few places,

Overall a good time pass and it's good that these issues are addressed. Read it!