Book - Eleanor Oliphant

 "Smart, warm, uplifting, the story of an out-of-the-ordinary heroine whose deadpan weirdness and unconscious wit make for an irresistible journey as she realizes the only way to survive is to open her heart. Meet Eleanor Oliphant: she struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she's thinking. That, combined with her unusual appearance (scarred cheek, tendency to wear the same clothes year in, year out), means that Eleanor has become a creature of habit (to say the least) and a bit of a loner. 

"Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy. But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office. When she and Raymond together save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen on the sidewalk, the three become the kind of friends who rescue each other from the lives of isolation they have each been living. And it is Raymond's big heart that will ultimately help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one"  (worldcat.org)

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JHT - Eleanor made me think about the "loners" I see periodically. Eleanor and Raymond remind me about the huge difference a small act of kindness can make. Eleanor sometimes made me laugh with the way she used language and her matter-of-fact approach to life and people. Eleanor's observations about social conventions, beauty, and other areas of life were often humorous, thought-provoking and spot on. 

While reading the book I often thought of the hymn, "Lord, I Would Follow Thee" in which we sing about walking the path Christ has shown us.

"Pause to help and lift another

...In the quiet heart is hidden

Sorrow that the eye can't see.

...I would learn the healer's art

To the wounded and the weary

I would show a gentle heart"

text Susan Evans McCloud

music K. Newell Dayley

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More about Eleanor here, here, and here