I have a hate/love relationship
with Rowell’s novel Eleanor & Park. On
one hand, I couldn’t help but fall hard for this novel because it just sucked
me in…it physically held me captive and I had no choice but to finish it in one
sitting because it was that engaging. I just had to know what would become of Eleanor and Park. I even had my
roommate read it immediately afterwards because I desperately wanted to talk to
someone about that darn ending (which is where the hate comes in). But before I
talk about that, let’s start from the beginning.
The novel starts off with a sort of
prologue and readers are introduced to Park Sheridan, a half-Korean,
half-Caucasian sixteen-year-old boy and his obsession with a girl named
Eleanor. Readers don’t know who this Eleanor is but we do know she’s someone of
dire importance because Rowell does a fantastic job describing Park’s obsessive
need on locating this mysterious Eleanor and then not really looking anymore at
the same time…if that makes sense. (Side
note: I should have known from this ‘prologue’ that the book wasn’t going
to end in a ‘happily ever after’). So right away, we know there’s something
going on between the two characters. Though readers don’t know who this Eleanor
is, we do get the hint that she’s a strong, impacting character.
After the prologue, the first
chapter opens up with a pre-Eleanor Park sitting in his school bus listening to
his Walkman, trying to drown out the noisy teens around him. He ignores his
neighbors—Steve and Tina—who are chatting loudly and obnoxiously in the back of
the bus. Regardless, they manage to engage Park in conversation about something
called “Drunken Monkey karate” and that’s where readers’ first discover about
Park’s ethnicity (Rowell 7).
Not too long afterwards, readers
meet the infamous Eleanor as she arrives on the bus; but here, she’s introduced
as the new girl. As she get’s on, practically every kid moves to the edge of
their seats. In fact, “[nobody] would look at her” because she apparently
looked like a bully magnet—someone “big and awkward” (Rowell 7-8). This came to
a huge surprise to me because in the beginning, I thought Eleanor was going to
be this striking person and here she is, a meek, self-conscious individual.
However so, because Eleanor & Park
alternates point of views, readers have a chance to see switches of viewpoints
between Park and Eleanor. These switches give each character a chance to
develop and grow from what they once were into who they become in the end.
As I whole, there were very minor
terms in the text that were left out but what I want to mention are the
stereotypic character DeNice and Beebi. I was overjoyed to see Eleanor befriend
the two but couldn’t help but cringe at how the two acted. In my opinion, they
acted too much like the typical, sassy “black” friend (specifically DeNice).
It’s not that I find it offending; I’m just a tad bit disappointed that there
weren’t any depth into those characters.
Also as a whole, I think this novel
position adolescents in a pretty realistic light. I saw some real life
situations with believable characters happening in this book. There was Eleanor
and her domestic issues and Park with his self-identification problems. In
fact, I sensed that theme of finding one’s gender between the two. Park liked
to wear eyeliner and Eleanor ties. She hated makeup and he didn’t do sports.
They even had passionate discussions about gender roles in comic books;
especially that one moment Eleanor nicknamed herself Han Solo in their
relationship, which in return makes Park Princess Leia. Anyways, it’s moments
like this (and what I mentioned above) that I believe this text would appeal to
adolescents.
Finally the grade, I wanted to give this novel
an A+ (if not an A++) but that ending killed me. Like literally killed me, I’m
writing this from the other side. So I’m giving it a B+…. A post card with
three words?! Come on Eleanor!!
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