ELEANOR OLIPHANT IS COMPLETELY FINE

Eleanor, you are so much better than fine - you’re actually kind of amazing. I don’t know why I took so long to read this wonderful book, but I am very glad I finally did. It was moving, funny, heartwarming - and made me cry a little bit too.

Eleanor - when we are first introduced - is lonely and isolated beyond reach, not the least bit fine, for layers upon layers of reasons that build upon themselves. When she meets Raymond, a new employee at the office where she works, something resembling friendship begins to bloom in Eleanor, and her reclusive, regimented life will never be the same.

My occasional tears reading this novel were not sad. They were for tender, kind moments, so beautifully described, that require so little yet mean so much. Maybe we can all find a bit of Raymond in ourselves, and remember that others may need our tolerance, patience and generosity of spirit more than we can ever know.

Eleanor spends her time with three things: frozen pizza, vodka and her house plant Polly. And so, here is my homemade pizza with vodka sauce. Special thanks to my boys and their friend for help with the dough! (See my story) This pizza doesn’t look like most others on the outside - it is sauced unevenly and a bit misshapen - but it is a pizza of substance, rich, warm and delicious. A fitting representation of one of the lessons that makes this story so special.