Eleanor and Park
written by Rainbow Rowell
You need that next fix. Your muscles tense and forcibly relax waiting to make a grab for it as soon as you get the chance. If only you got a minute to yourself… But, even in your desperate state you know it would just be plain rude to bring out a book while you’re talking with your friends, sitting in class, driving, walking, ect. The list goes on because when a book hooks you in, it becomes a force in your life compelling you to be reading it every second until you can finally close that back cover. It is not a feeling that happens with every book, but it does happen. For three days I was addicted to Eleanor and Park. This little young-adult book really packs a punch and proved to be truly “un-put-down-able”.
As evidenced by the front of the book, this is a story of a boy and a girl. And, yes, it is a love story. Love stories have gotten a bit of a reputation throughout the years as being girly and predictable. True, that this book would probably appeal more to females, but it is not “girly” and more importantly not predictable. With that said, Eleanor and Park is a tale of not just love, but “first love”. The landscape of this book spans one school year and has a charming feel, sporadic sarcastic humor, and is cut through with great fissures of depth filled with grief and scorpions of reality.
This romance begins like many others; insults and begrudgingly having to sit next to each other on the school bus. The emotion that grows between Eleanor and Park mirrors the effect of the book upon the reader as the story progresses. At first the reader and the characters are unsure how they feel (about the book and about each other respectively), then they grow closer, then they fall fast and hard. This love story stands out from the others because of its tether to both the reality of the world and the dreamlike qualities of first love. At times the world created in the pages feels so real that you may find yourself thinking that your own reality is somehow less so. When that happens close then book, it’s late and you’re thinking too much. The book will be there in the morning.
I’d love to tell you it’s not gooey and romantic, but I’d be lying. Don’t worry though you’ll be really into it because by the time that starts you will have already fallen for the book. The love story isn’t the only plot in the book, but it is what drives it. In congruence with reality there are motifs of abuse, both physical and psychological, as well as loss. This book, however, doesn’t act as a conduit for life lessons, but it does make you think.
Handle this book with care, because once you open it you run the risk of possession and the only way to break the enchantment if by finishing what you started. So try to time it right. Good times to unleash the book include weekends, summer days, and traveling. Bad times are exams, busy work weeks, white water rafting ect. You get the picture, so handle with care because it is highly addictive.
