This book is phenomenal.

It’s easy to step into the oh-so-real world of Eleanor Oliphant, the office politics, the mundanity of the everyday, the desire for more…

The characters are consciously well observed and created – I feel like I’ve met them all in so many places before. Their roles are laid out in so many scenarios within our own lives. Imperfect, flawed and, much of the time, incredibly irritating, Eleanor’s brokenness and her overwhelming loneliness keep us on side without letting us forget that she is downright hard work. As she longs for more, so do we for her.

Vignettes of everyday life and a whole host of firsts make this book, whilst it’s ultimately quite sad, poignantly funny and, also, full of hope.

One of the most wonderful features of this book is that it is well able to catapult us back to past generations. Raymond’s mum is a delight to read. She’s everything quaint and delightful in Britain’s nostalgic past. It’s the same with Sammy. Ageing with dignity and the joys of small acts of kind service permeate this book beautifully.

That’s not to say that it is chintzy or saccharine. It’s not.

‘Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine’ doesn’t shy away from what makes life hard, but it doesn’t dwell there. It encourages us, as readers, to take brave steps forward, to live optimistically, to have hope and work for change.

I loved this book!

Eleanor Oliphants, bureaucrats who officiously love the rules, will pop out at me in my life now forever and, I hope, I’ll be able to be a little kinder and more understanding of them because of it.

Read it. Her narratorial voice is a wonder to behold…