Love on a schoolbus

Blogosphere loves Eleanor & Park.  I am not sure how it became THE It book of the late summer (there are so many "It" books during a year!), but now that I have read it, I can understand why so many bloggers love it.

As a side note, I am a little concerned with the 1980s becoming such a popular period with authors these days.  Is this considered historical fiction?  I hope not, as I am a child of the 80s.  I feel like the 80s are popular because it's just before the huge influx of technology that hit all of us like a bus (see Ready Player One), and so people could have real conversations in person and not just via text message all the time.  I think this is fine, though I dread the day when people become reminiscent about the "good old days" of the 1980s and then 80s fashion comes back and then we'll all look ridiculous again.

Anyway, back to the book.

Eleanor & Park is about two teenagers in Nebraska.  Eleanor is the chubby red-headed poor girl who is new to school (kind of like Molly Ringwald, except not quite so cute), and Park is the half-Korean guy at the fringe of the cool crowd just trying to fly under the radar.  They meet on a school bus, a la Forrest and Jenny, and slowly start up conversation, realize they have a lot in common, and then fall head over heels for each other.

I admit that a lot of the scenes in this book in which Eleanor and Park tell each other how much they love each other made me roll my eyes.  I wonder if this is because I listened to Eleanor & Park on audiobook and it's hard not to roll your eyes when you hear things like, "I don't like you, I need you." Those are the sorts of words that people say to each other out of hearing of everyone else, not broadcasted in my car on my way to work.  So, while I think the audiobook was fantastic, I do think that audiobook in general is not a great way to experience scenes where teenagers get gooey-eyed for each other.  But luckily, there is so much more to Eleanor & Park than gooey-eyed love talk.  And that's what made this book really good.

So many love stories are you + me against the world, but this one is about you + me against the world and in spite of our own insecurities.  I loved that.  I loved that Eleanor was so insecure about her weight and thought she looked like a blimp, but Park never described her as fat, he just loved her.  And I think if you're a teenager (or anyone, really), it's so important to know that even though you have body issues, that doesn't stop someone else from finding you crazy attractive and wanting to be with you.  And that someone else could be a really cute Asian guy who used to date a skinny blond girl.  Thank you, Rainbow Rowell, for highlighting that fact.  And then when Eleanor does finally understand that Park finds her beautiful and that he wants to be with her, she is able to (tentatively) let go and experience the happiness of being with him, much more than the fear that he will find her repulsive.  And that is just a great moment.

What I love about that moment is that we never really know how overweight Eleanor is.  She says that she's too big for all her clothes, that her gym outfit rides up her thighs, that she has inches of fat that she can pinch on her body.  But when we see her through Park's eyes, he doesn't dwell on her weight much.  And what girl does NOT think that her gym outfit rides up her thighs or that she has fat in all the wrong places?  The point being - it doesn't matter what you really look like in these situations, it matters what you think you look like.  That's what causes so much stress and drama and tears, regardless of how you look, and so Eleanor's actual weight wasn't the issue - it was her perception of herself that mattered, and her shift in perception that made her so much more confident and happy.

Eleanor's life is really, really complicated.  There is a lot going on and none of it is good (except for the Park portion).  Rowell brought poverty to life in vivid detail, showing how people and families compensate for each other and watch out for each other and make efforts not to rock the boat.  And I liked that Rowell showed just how much life could impact the way Eleanor was at school, and with Park.  So many times, we don't give people enough credit for what they have going on in their personal lives.  We assume that they do things because they're odd or rude or mean.  We assume that people do everything deliberately.  And this book really highlights the old adage of walking a mile in another person's shoes.  There are so many events and occurrences and people who can effect our moods and our abilities to connect with other people, and if we don't make an attempt to understand those, we are likely to attribute negative traits to people who do not deserve them.

And Park is one of those people who attributes negative traits to Eleanor.  He first thinks she's really strange because of the way she dresses, when in fact, those are the clothes that she can afford.  Then he thinks she doesn't want to talk to him about personal things because she doesn't like him or doesn't trust him, but it's really because her situation is so complicated and horrible she doesn't want to dwell on it.  And Park struggles with "pockets of shallow" within himself.  He doesn't always want to be seen with Eleanor because she doesn't have great social standing.  He likes that a popular girl is attracted to him because it gives him good social status.  He at first doesn't want Eleanor to meet his parents because he knows his mom won't like her.  And his mom does not like her, and Park has to find a way to deal with the situation.

There's so much going on in this book.  It's much more than a romance or a coming-of-age story.  It's about class and race and stereotypes and gender and bravery.  And while some of the lines or scenes may make you roll your eyes, it's well worth a read for all of the other amazing parts.

Note:  I received a complimentary copy of this book to review.  However, my review is based on the audiobook version.