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John's Comments
When I first read this early last year, I wasn’t particularly impressed. I didn’t like the main character very much which doesn’t help when she is the storyteller. I didn’t like her superiority and put-downs of other people, and her experiences were so far from mine that I didn’t really engage with the plot. BUT re-reading it and thinking more about it has made me see it as a much better book.
When Eleanor jokes about her name with her counsellor, “Yes, I suppose you would have remembered an Oliphant in the room”, I think the author is flagging up that she chose that name as a deliberate pun, because the book is plotted around the idea of an elephant in the room. An elephant that is fully revealed at the end.
When I first read this early last year, I wasn’t particularly impressed. I didn’t like the main character very much which doesn’t help when she is the storyteller. I didn’t like her superiority and put-downs of other people, and her experiences were so far from mine that I didn’t really engage with the plot. BUT re-reading it and thinking more about it has made me see it as a much better book.
When Eleanor jokes about her name with her counsellor, “Yes, I suppose you would have remembered an Oliphant in the room”, I think the author is flagging up that she chose that name as a deliberate pun, because the book is plotted around the idea of an elephant in the room. An elephant that is fully revealed at the end.
I also spotted other clues into how the book was written, that I’d not given much weight to the first time round. For example, Eleanor's favourite book is Jane Eyre and in a broad sense the author has modelled Eleanor on Jane – orphan, the horrible fostering Mrs Read, unhappy school days, the handsome stranger, the fire and the madness in the attic - at one point Eleanor asks herself - do I look mad to others, am I in fact mad?
Eleanor makes instant and simple judgements about people and places, but slowly realises that her perceptions are often very wrong . When she travels on the bus she looks to sit next to the right sort of person and definitely not next to the man who has no socks, yet he is the one who shows her kindness and sympathy. This is her mother’s malign influence at work but only later do you get the true import of her mother’s voice.
On p85 we have “There are scars on my heart are just as disfiguring as those on my face. I know they’re there. I hope some undamaged tissue remains, a patch which love can come in and flow out. I hope”. Then near the end of the book as Richard holds her hands she feels like a flower opening in the sun she says, “I knew what was happening. It was the un-scarred piece of my heart. It was just big enough to let in a tiny bit of affection. There was still a tiny bit of room left”.
Eleanor’s lonely life has walled her in. She believes she is completely fine and needs no one else. She will marry the singer and plots the path to her happiness. She buys clothes, has a manicure, re-styles her hair and researches his background, but her fantasy is shattered, she realises she is acting like a child and is not completely fine at all.
Her story is one of healing and redemption brought about by the persistent and unconditional kindness of Raymond and others. When she has finally silenced her mother, she says, "I was getting to like my own thoughts. I wanted more of them. They made me feel like me."
Eleanor makes instant and simple judgements about people and places, but slowly realises that her perceptions are often very wrong . When she travels on the bus she looks to sit next to the right sort of person and definitely not next to the man who has no socks, yet he is the one who shows her kindness and sympathy. This is her mother’s malign influence at work but only later do you get the true import of her mother’s voice.
On p85 we have “There are scars on my heart are just as disfiguring as those on my face. I know they’re there. I hope some undamaged tissue remains, a patch which love can come in and flow out. I hope”. Then near the end of the book as Richard holds her hands she feels like a flower opening in the sun she says, “I knew what was happening. It was the un-scarred piece of my heart. It was just big enough to let in a tiny bit of affection. There was still a tiny bit of room left”.
Eleanor’s lonely life has walled her in. She believes she is completely fine and needs no one else. She will marry the singer and plots the path to her happiness. She buys clothes, has a manicure, re-styles her hair and researches his background, but her fantasy is shattered, she realises she is acting like a child and is not completely fine at all.
Her story is one of healing and redemption brought about by the persistent and unconditional kindness of Raymond and others. When she has finally silenced her mother, she says, "I was getting to like my own thoughts. I wanted more of them. They made me feel like me."