They bond over comic books, music, jokes, and their shared sense of isolation - real or imagined - at their high school and within their own families. They ride the bus to school together, and after a rocky start, become friends, and then something more. Eleanor and Park make an unlikely pair, but, surprising everyone (including themselves), they fall in love. These two kids each have struggles fitting in: Park, who’s half-Korean, is one of the only Asians in his entire school - perhaps the entire state - and Eleanor, the new girl in town, is chubby and awkward, with crazy red hair, and comes from a rough family situation, with an abusive stepfather, absent father, and weak mother. The narrative switches between Eleanor and Park throughout the book. The story is about two teenagers - the aforementioned Eleanor and Park - who live in Omaha, Nebraska in the 1980s. It’s not all saccharine-sweet happiness - there are some serious emotional ups and downs - but the ending feels true and real and right, and I loved it. After reading Meg Wolitzer’s The Interestings, which left me feeling down in the dumps and emotionally manipulated, Eleanor & Park is a breath of fresh air. And actually, I think Eleanor & Park is even better than Attachments it packs a big emotional wallop with a great payoff. I was predisposed to like this novel because I read and loved Rowell’s first novel, Attachments, another sweet, moving, funny love story. I read it in less than a day and was enraptured the entire time, and I want everyone to go out and read this book, right now. Other adjectives that I’d use to describe it include charming, sweet, heartfelt, moving, emotionally satisfying, and adorable. Eleanor & Park is, in a word, delightful.
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