One of the big questions of our time is how to overcome loneliness. When I’ve had to spend time away from my family, I always take my Kindle or a book or two. When I feel lonely, I read. It’s like a conversation with the author, even if it’s one-sided. It’s a form of human connection. It’s not the full answer of course.
Lately I’ve read two novels about loneliness and the redemptive power of connection. One is Jane Harper’s The Lost Man. The other is Gail Honeywell’s Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine.
I’ve enjoyed each one of Jane Harper’s books but The Lost Man is my favourite so far. Her first book, The Dry, explores the psychological effects of drought on farming families in regional Australia. At the same time it is a gripping police procedural. Force of Nature focuses on office politics played out in a corporate team-building exercise in the Australian bush. One member of the team does not return. This is a page-turning who-dunnit.
Like Harper’s first two books, The Lost Man excels in conveying the smells, tastes, and way of life in areas of Australia beyond the major cities. She develops the story masterfully through chapters from different characters’ points of view, delving into their back stories and actions in relation to a man found dead in the desert. The central question of how the man met his fate is not revealed until the end after a surprising twist. In The Lost Man many of the characters are lost in some way. The real mystery of the book is who is the lost man of the title?
Author: Jane Harper
Paperback, 384 pages
Published by Pan Macmillan Australia, 2018.
ISBN: 9781743549100 (paperback)
9781760781668 (ebook)
9781760781668 (ebook)
Gail Honeywell’s Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine is funny and sad at the same time. In some ways it is similar to Graeme Simsion’s The Rosie Project but the reasons for the odd behaviour of the main character in this book are far more disturbing. That said, Eleanor Oliphant is a most engaging protagonist. At the start of the book she lives alone and leads a carefully managed life, having little connection with her workmates.
Her movement towards human connection begins when she sets her sights on a man completely unlikely to return her affections. Her accounts of how she prepares herself for meeting him are hilarious. By the time the big day comes, I was so engaged with her as a character I could barely read on.
To escape her isolation Eleanor needs to come to terms with her past and this book brings its readers through the harrowing and often darkly funny process by which she achieves this. It is written in the first person in such a lively and perceptive voice, the novel was an absolute pleasure to read. I couldn’t put it down.
Title: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine
Author: Gail Honeyman
Paperback, 383 pages
Published by HarperCollinsPublishers, 2017
ISBN: 9780008172145 (paperback)
At a time when isolation is a growing issue in our society, these novels explore the pain of loneliness and the paths to connection in a nuanced and highly affecting way. Both highly recommended.