Adults will enjoy this award-winning novel along with teenagers - don't skip this title merely because the protagonists are teenagers.
Characters Eleanor and Park both try to maintain low profiles at school and on the school bus. After a long hiatus, Eleanor has just moved back in with her mother, siblings and explosive stepfather. She had stayed with the neighbors in her old neighborhood for what was supposed to be a few weeks until things calmed down with her stepfather. The temporary stay turned into almost a year, during which time her family moved to the other side of the city.
Park is half-Korean and likes underground music and comic books. Neither of them really fit in. They end up sitting next to each other on the bus, as no one else will makes space for the new girl, until finally Park grudgingly makes space. Eleanor surreptitiously reads Park's comics on the bus; eventually Park starts flipping the page only after Eleanor has finished. Eventually they even talk to each other.
I liked many things about this book. First, it provides a positive image of a full-figured girl, Eleanor. Some readers assume she is overweight or obese, but this is never stated in the text. It's more likely that Eleanor's sense of herself is of being too big because she lives in a thin-obsessed world. Park's character comes to view Eleanor as sensual and luscious, and he wouldn't dream of suggesting she go on a diet.
I enjoyed the change in relationship between Park's mother, Mindy, and Eleanor. Initially, Mindy dislikes Eleanor and discourages her son from seeing Eleanor. She thinks Eleanor is shabby and unkempt, assuming Eleanor doesn't care about her appearance. But Mindy eventually realizes Eleanor's shabbiness is due to poverty - poverty that Mindy experienced herself as a child of a large family back in Korea. Mindy's problem is really about her own emotional wounds from the past, and not anything to do with Eleanor.
I liked that her protagonists don't fit stereotypical gender roles. Though Park's mother, Mindy, is a diminutive hairdresser and makeover artist, she is quite capable at holding the line when Park's father sets some unreasonable expectations for Park. As Mindy performs a makeover on Eleanor (who has never been able to afford make-up, let alone more costly cosmetics), Mindy thinks nothing of putting eyeliner on Park to demonstrate that eyeliner is safe and what it will look like for Eleanor. As a result of this demonstration, Park realizes he himself looks good with eyeliner on - in an edgy way - and starts wearing it to school, breaking some more gender stereotypes. I liked the fact that Eleanor wore somewhat outlandish clothes and accessories - men's ties, fishing flies in her hair and such - and that her character was responded to positively by the other protagonist.
Author Rainbow Rowell writes dialogue that is realistic and sparkles. Her dialogue exemplifies the advice writing instructors always give: "Don't tell your audience; show them."
In a nutshell - this was a deeply enjoyable novel!
Qhyrrae Michaelieu orders audiobooks for Missouri River Regional Library. "Eleanor and Park" is one of many titles you can check out in audiobook format at the library.