Eleanor and Park, Rainbow Rowell

 By Annabel George

 

“I don’t like you, Park,” she said, sounding for a second like she actually meant it. “I…” – her voice nearly disappeared – “think I live for you.” He closed his eyes and pressed his head back into his pillow.” I don’t think I even breathe when we’re not together,” she whispered. “Which means, when I see you on Monday morning, it’s been like sixty hours since I’ve taken a breath. That’s probably why I’m so crabby, and why I snap at you. All I do when we’re apart is think about you, and all I do when we’re together is panic. Because every second feels so important. And because I’m so out of control, I can’t help myself. I’m not even mine anymore, I’m yours, and what if you decide that you don’t want me? How could you want me like I want you?” He was quiet. He wanted everything she’d just said to be the last thing he heard. He wanted to fall asleep with ‘I want you’ in his ears.”

–Eleanor and Park, Rainbow Rowell

That is the intensity of their love for each other and that is how much they wanted to be in each other’s lives. They were two teenagers who, when introduced to each other, were complete strangers (like any two people meeting for the first time) who were forced to sit with each other during their bus rides to school. This forced relationship graduated to a relationship filled with a profound love, which was ultimately meant to be doomed.

Eleanor and Park written by Rainbow Rowell had been one of my random reading selections. I hadn’t heard of Rainbow Rowell when I stumbled upon the novel and therefore there wasn’t much that I was expecting out of the book or Rowell’s writing.

Set in the late 1980s in Omaha, Nebraska it follows the lives of Eleanor and Park, through their individual narrations in the novel. This allows the reader to understand them individually, their stories and their perspectives. What the reader also becomes aware of, is their specific life stories, what makes them, them. Eleanor hailing from a hellish household with a mother and a step-father who fits the definition of a ‘step’- parent and siblings younger than her. His cruel behavior destroys his relationship with them and only further worsens their situation. A natural anger and hatred toward him, grew within me in the instances where her step-father shows his dark side. This cruel behavior is extended to Eleanor’s school life where she becomes a constant victim of her classmates bullying, is mocked at because of her strange dressing sense and the fact that she is fat. What’s inspiring is that, in spite of all the criticism from her classmates, Eleanor doesn’t stop being herself. Park’s life contrasts that of Eleanor. Insecure about his Asian heritage and his size, Park comes from a family filled with a lot of love and warmth. He has a lot of friends at his school and is popular among them. Park reminded me of Eric Forman from the American period sit-com That 70s show, who, very much like Park is constantly struggling to win his father’s approval. The two characters are not considered to be “masculine” in the eyes of their respective fathers because neither of them are interested in sports or are ‘macho’ or ‘masculine’. They are more inclined toward alternative music and comic books. Rowell has created very simple characters; characters with who the readers can relate to. When Eleanor does not write back to Park after she leaves Omaha, I could actually feel the hurt, pain and anger that Park was feeling.

Rowell magically and beautifully brings these two contrasts together. And the fact that they’re different doesn’t stop them from falling in love. It’s not just physical attraction or physical love, but the love of two souls. Although the ending of the book left me numb and a wee bit shattered, it is a compelling read. My attention remained intact throughout the novel, keeping me going from page to page without a halt. There were chapters and certain parts that I re-read, having the same effect on me as before. For my very first experience with the writer’s work, it only made me want to read more of her writing.