Eleanor & Park

 

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
2/26/13; 336 pages
St. Martin's Press 

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell is a very highly recommended story of a first love between two misfits set over the course of a school year in Omaha during 1986. 

Eleanor and Park, both 16, meet when, as the new kid, Eleanor, is looking for a seat on the bus where every seat is claimed by someone else. Park, sitting toward the back of the bus, just happens to not have a seat mate. The driver is yelling at her to sit and she ends up next to Park. Park is a half-Korean fan of comic books and alternative music. Eleanor is tall, big girl with a mane of curly red hair and a unique style of dressing. They don't talk for a long time, until Park notices that Eleanor is surreptitiously also reading his comic books. He begins to turn the pages slower, to make sure she's able to follow. Soon he's sharing his comic books with her, then music, and eventually they begin to talk.

The two have a very different background and home life. Park has a relatively normal home life, a few friends, and wears mostly black t-shirts featuring bands. Eleanor's home life is a struggle and she doesn't share this information. Her mother remarried an abusive, drunkard jerk of a stepfather, Richie, who kicked her out of the house last year. Now she and her five siblings all share one bedroom, eat right after school, and avoid him at all costs. Now, being the new, very different girl also makes her a target at her new high school. 

The narrative is told through the alternating points-of-view of Park and Eleanor in this is a well-written, emotionally wrenching story of a very awkward first love set during one socially anxious year of high school. Even while they know they are falling in love, they are both cautious of what they say to each other, afraid it is the wrong thing or said in the wrong way. Park does not know the truth of Eleanor's home life. The time period is perfectly captured and the dialogue between the two is pitch perfect. Yeah, I cried.

Generally classified as a YA novel, it easily crosses over into an adult novel, especially toward the end. I bought this years ago on a strong recommendation and, as I've hit a place where I'm trying to do a little catch-up reading on novels I never got to, it was on my short list to finally read. I am so glad I did and now I understand why it was so highly recommended. It covers a myriad of emotional topics with characters already experiencing one of the most emotional periods of their lives.