Christina Vortia
Jennifer Hubert Swan
LIS 677: Book Talk #2
06/17/2014
Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
Eleanor and Park is a tender romance by Rainbow Rowell about two 16 year olds who
don’t exactly fit in, but once they discover each other…they fall into a love so raw it stands out.
Eleanor…Big Red…at sixteen she has the physique of a bar maid, a head full of unruly
curls and a smart wit hidden under shark skin suit jackets and men’s bowling shoes. She has a
smile that’s as electric as Christmas lights. Imagine how mortifying it would be to have to read a
poem about hunger when you are clearly the most ample person in the room. This is what
happened to Eleanor on her day of Sandshore High School – talk about dangling raw meat in
from of blood thirsty carnivores. She’s the oldest of five children and as much as school sucks,
her home life is worse. Returning home after a year in exile to a cramped home, an abusive
step-father, and unwelcoming classmates leaves Eleanor disoriented and…lost. She couldn’t
have possibly imagined just how delicious it would be to find love in the most unlikely of
places…Park.
Park…weird stupid Asian kid…at least, this is what Eleanor calls him. He’s half Korean,
half Irish, and wholly original. His parents are awesomely in love, his home-life is refreshingly
traditional, and he exudes a coolness that renders him untouchable to bullies, loud mouths, and
jerks. Simply put, Park is cool. He loves comic books and great music. He’s so cool he doesn’t
even seem to notice that the hottest girls in school are wantonly into him. He marches to his
own beat, and if he feels like rocking black eye-liner, that’s what he does.
After a very passionate reading of the poem “Caged Bird”, Eleanor starts to win over a
more positive impression on Park….in Park’s mind, almost everything about this girl is bully bait.
Park sees in this girl a passion, an ability to be comfortable being different and the art of her chaos is intrigues him. Then he notices that the girl reads his comic books on the bus. When he
discovers that he starts bringing her comic books every day. Quite a bit of time lapses where
there are these silent exchanges of music and comic books that is so real and adorable and
finally Park gets up the nerve to speak to Eleanor. A love of music bridges this communication
gap, and it’s not long before they are seriously falling in like with each other. But when Eleanor
asks Park why he likes her, in probably the sweetest way a guy could, Park tells her, he doesn’t
just like her, he needs her. And these two mismatched lovers bond together in the often tense
misunderstandings of those around them. As their love blossoms, strange things start
happening, Tina, Park’s popular ex-girlfriend increasingly makes Eleanor’s life at school hell.
Then, illicit messages start appearing on Eleanor’s book cover. Who is doing that? Park’s mom,
Mindy, who’s a beautician, isn’t so keen on this strange girl who wears man clothes coming to
her house, inciting her “good boy” son to fight. And all of this is happening while Eleanor is
literally trying to survive – survive in a world that doesn’t make sense. Park is desperate to
prove to Eleanor that he’s not ashamed of her, and that he wants everyone in the world to meet
Eleanor, and to see her as he does, but Eleanor is terrified that her mom and her horrible step-
father will find out she has a boyfriend. If her step-father put her out of the house before, surely
he could do it again. But can these two profess and suppress their love all at the same time?
Does love really conquer all? Fellows will want to get a notepad and pencil and take notes;
because every girl wants to be loved the way Park loves Eleanor. This book is sweet, and
soulful – aching and nostalgic, witty and charming, but please – don’t take it from me! Please
pick up a copy of Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell, and see for yourself.
Works Cited
Handler, Daniel, and Maira Kalman. Why We Broke up. New York: Little, Brown, 2011. Print.
Knowles, Johanna. Pearl. New York: Henry Holt, 2011. Print.
Standiford, Natalie. How to Say Goodbye in Robot. New York: Scholastic, 2009. Print.
