The Official Book Club Guide: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine

When Eleanor has problems with her computer at work she calls the new IT technician, Raymond Gibbons. Irritated by Raymond’s jokey voicemail greeting, she isn’t surprised when he turns out to be a scruffy, unattractive individual. Meanwhile, Eleanor decides that she should improve her own appearance if she is to catch the eye of Johnnie Lomond. She begins by going for a bikini wax but is horrified when the results of a ‘Hollywood’ are revealed. She also buys a laptop and a mobile phone so that she can follow Johnnie’s frequent posts on Twitter and Instagram.

Later in the week Eleanor is annoyed when Raymond Gibbons accompanies her down the street as they leave work. As Raymond does his best to make conversation, they see an elderly man stagger and fall over in the street. Eleanor disapprovingly observes that the old man must have been drinking but Raymond insists they should stop to help. On Raymond’s instructions Eleanor talks to the unconscious old man while Raymond calls an ambulance. When the emergency services arrive, Raymond accompanies the old man to hospital. Meanwhile, Eleanor is surprised to realise that she feels concerned about the stranger’s welfare.

Back at her flat, Eleanor receives a visit from June Mullen, a social worker. After leaving foster care, Eleanor was allocated her flat by social services and she receives six-monthly visits to check on her wellbeing. Eleanor tells June that she is still in weekly contact with her mother. She also confirms that she does not want to know any details about ‘the incident’ that led to her mother’s incarceration. During the interview June accidentally drops a sheet of paper from Eleanor’s file. When she has gone, Eleanor reads the paper, which is an account of a meeting between social services and Eleanor’s former foster parents, Mr and Mrs Reed. During the meeting the Reeds claimed that Eleanor was ‘insolent and rude’ and that she became hysterical when punished. The meeting concluded with the decision that Eleanor would be placed in a residential care home due to ‘challenging behaviour’.

Eleanor works out where Johnnie Lomond lives when he posts a photograph of the view from his apartment window on Twitter. She takes a rubbing of the brass nameplate on his door and listens outside his apartment to hear him sing.

Eleanor receives a call from Raymond who tells her that Sammy Thom (the elderly man who collapsed in the street) has regained consciousness. Eleanor reluctantly agrees to meet Raymond at the hospital to introduce themselves to the old man. When they arrive Sammy thanks them for their help and declares them to be ‘family’. Before they leave him, Sammy holds both of Eleanor’s hands and she is surprised to find the human contact pleasant.

On the way out of the hospital, Eleanor sees the date on a newspaper and realises that it is her birthday. This prompts a memory of her twenty-first birthday, when her boyfriend, Declan, savagely assaulted her. Raymond asks Eleanor if she would like to accompany him to visit his mother. Eleanor expects Raymond’s mother to be tedious company. She agrees, however, as she has rarely had the opportunity to see inside another person’s house.

Mrs Gibbons is crippled with arthritis but welcomes Eleanor warmly. Comfortable as she listens to Raymond and his mother chat, Eleanor comprehends that this is what normal family life feels like. When Raymond’s mother asks her about her family, Eleanor says that she is an only child and begins to cry. She goes on to explain that she never knew her father and describes her mother as ‘inaccessible’. Eleanor helps Raymond perform some chores and, before they go, Mrs Gibbons enthusiastically thanks Eleanor for her help, inviting her to come back any time. Eleanor realises that this is the second time in one day that she has received heartfelt thanks from a stranger.

Eleanor and Raymond return to the hospital to visit Sammy. Sammy introduces them to his adult children and tells them that he is going to move in with his daughter, Laura, for a couple of weeks while he recovers. Laura – a glamorous hairdresser – invites them both to the party she is throwing to celebrate. Eleanor notices that Raymond cannot take his eyes off Laura.

Realising that she has been distracted by recent events, Eleanor once again turns her attention to preparing for meeting Johnnie Lomond. She visits a nail bar but is disappointed by the experience. Back at home she receives an unexpected call from Mummy, who belittles her daughter and hints at how Eleanor acquired the scars on her face and hands.

Looking through a local newspaper on the way to work, Eleanor sees an advert for a gig featuring Johnnie Lomond and the Pilgrim Pioneers. Seeing that the gig is taking place that night, Eleanor decides to seize the day. After work she goes to a department store and, with the help of a store assistant, buys a fashionable outfit to wear. She also goes for a makeover in the cosmetics department. After her first visit to a fast-food restaurant, she arrives at the gig venue only to discover that the tickets are sold out.

Dismayed to find that she is unable to buy vodka in the corner shop before 10 a.m., Eleanor visits the local Tesco store to stock up on supplies. Here she spots Johnnie Lomond and follows him around the aisles to the checkout. Eleanor resists speaking to the singer but later tweets him to recommend he signs up for a Tesco Club Card. Johnnie sends a rude reply accusing her of marketing on the supermarket’s behalf.

Eleanor and Raymond go to Laura’s party together. Eleanor has taken Laura’s assurance that they need not bring anything literally and turns up empty-handed. Raymond covers for her, claiming that the flowers and wine he has brought are from them both. Eleanor notes that Laura’s home is as ‘shiny’ as its owner and feels ‘dull’ in comparison. After several glasses of Prosecco, Eleanor and Raymond go into the garden. They share a bottle of wine and Raymond confides that his previous girlfriend ended their three-year relationship claiming that he was ‘too nice’. In return, Eleanor tells Raymond that her live-in boyfriend, Declan, regularly assaulted and emotionally abused her. She finally ended the relationship when he broke her arm (for a second time) and a hospital nurse counselled her on domestic abuse. Raymond calls Eleanor a taxi. As she gets in, she sees Laura approaching Raymond with two glasses of Prosecco.

Eleanor takes the afternoon off work to have her hair cut at Laura’s salon. The intimate sensation of having her head touched brings back the vague memory of gently combing the hair of a younger child. Transformed by her new hairstyle, Eleanor cries and thanks Laura for making her ‘shiny’.

Back at work, Eleanor’s boss, Bob, offers her promotion to office manager. Unsure of whether to accept, Eleanor invites Raymond to lunch to talk over the job offer. Raymond advises her to take the promotion, pointing out that it will look good on her CV when she decides to move on to bigger things. Eleanor realises for the first time that opportunities beyond her limited existence are possible.

When Raymond is invited to the fortieth birthday party of Sammy’s son, Keith, Eleanor agrees to go with him. Appreciating that she made a faux pas by arriving at Laura’s party empty-handed, she takes half a bottle of vodka and a packet of cheese slices to present to Keith. At the party, Eleanor is persuaded to dance. Although initially afraid of making a fool of herself, she finds the experience strangely liberating. When one of the male guests offers to buy her a drink she declines. After queuing for the ladies’ room, Eleanor returns to her table to find that Raymond has disappeared. She sees him slow dancing with Laura and decides to go home.

Eleanor goes for a second department store makeover and buys the cosmetics to create the same effect at home. When she arrives at work, her colleagues comment enthusiastically and kindly on her transformed appearance.

Eleanor again meets Raymond for lunch. She tells him she has decided to accept the promotion and he warmly congratulates her. As they are talking, a baby starts crying in the café, reminding Eleanor of a time when her mother left her alone with a baby without food in the house. That evening, Eleanor hears from her mother. Mummy advises Eleanor to hasten her pursuit of Johnnie Lomond or she will try to ‘engineer’ a visit to help her with her project. Terrified at the prospect, Eleanor tells her mother that won’t be necessary. Johnny Lomond sends a tweet announcing that he is leaving the Pilgrim Pioneers to launch a solo career.

Although 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 that she has revealed to Maria. She also asks him to help her to find out more about the circumstances of the fire. When Raymond squeezes her hand and expresses his admiration for her courage, Eleanor feels a piece of her heart opening up.

Eleanor returns to work, much to the relief of her boss and colleagues, who have missed her efficiency. They welcome her back with a bunch of flowers and a card expressing their good wishes. When she opens her email, Eleanor sees a message from Raymond inviting her to accompany him to a classical concert.

Wednesday night arrives and Eleanor tells her mother that she wants no further contact with her.

Part Three – Better Days

Eleanor prints off some articles about the house fire and meets Raymond to read them in his presence. The newspaper articles reveal that both four-year-old Marianne and Eleanor’s mother, Sharon Smyth, died in the fire which her mother started deliberately. Ten-year-old Eleanor Smyth escaped the fire but suffered third-degree burns when she re-entered the house. Firefighters found her trying to open a locked wardrobe which had Marianne’s body inside.

Eleanor tells Raymond she is going to continue with the counselling. When she assures him that she is ‘fine’ she realises that she is speaking the truth. Raymond asks her if she received his email about the classical concert and she confirms that she will go with him. He hugs Eleanor and she kisses him on the cheek before fastening her jerkin and heading home.