Eleanor and Park

Title: Eleanor and Park
By: Rainbow Rowell
Rating: 

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Eleanor and Park has been a teen fiction phenomenon - especially for realistic teen fiction when so many of the popular teen titles have been fantasy dystopian novels. The first work published by Rainbow Rowell, Eleanor and Park is an incredibly enjoyable read.

The book is about two teenagers in the 1980's. Eleanor has just moved into a new neighborhood and finds herself immediately at the receiving end of school bullying. This is because she is different - she dresses differently, acts differently (doesn't fit into popular 80's stereotype behavior), and is chubby. Add in the fact that Eleanor is dirt poor, living in an emotionally abusive household (where her mother gets beaten by her stepfather and she shares a small room with all four of her younger sibling), and she is the perfect target for bullying, the perfect protagonist to sympathize with. I admit that sometimes I feel like Rowell over did it with all of the obstacles that Eleanor had to go through - especially since she doesn't go as deeply into these problems as she should or could have. For such a little book, she sure has tried to pack in a lot of conflict.

Park on the other hand comes from a Leave It to Beaver family. His father is a veteran from the Korean war and his mother is a Korean woman that his father brought back to the States with him (and who no one discriminates against...). He has two very white grandparents who live just next door (he eats dinner at their house once a week) and a brother who looks more white than he does. No one picks on Park and as much as he doesn't like the popular kids, he's quasi-friends with them. For the most part, Park keeps his head down and no one bothers him while he reads his comic books on the school bus. 

The two of them hate each other at first but when they begin to share a seat on the school bus, they eventually become closer through the sharing of comic books and music. Here is where the novel is seriously rich in 80's references and while I do know my comics, I have to admit that I completely missed some of the music references (being born in 88 and growing up in the 90's...). Now, a lot of people didn't like the romantic development between the two characters. Many complain that while their friendship did have a good and realistic transition, the transition from friendship to relationship was a bit abrupt. I personally didn't find the changes in their relationship particularly disorienting but I'm fairly lenient about these things.

The book changes perspective between the two characters - some of the chapters no more than a few sentences before switching perspective. Some people didn't like this about Rowell's style and claimed that it made you feel detached from her characters. I didn't have this problem at all and didn't think the writing style took away from relating with the characters.

In terms of entertainment, I had no complaints with the novel but there are some things (like the ending - I mean, really Rainbow Rowell? Really?! and other details) that pulled the book down a bit for me.

First, I was confused by the Romeo and Juliet references in the book. Eleanor and Park are covering this Shakespearean tragedy in school and Eleanor immediately dismisses the idea that Romeo and Juliet is a love story (a great point that I learned thanks to a REALLY good 6th grade Humanities teacher). Eleanor points out that the story isn't really about love but about children thinking they're in love without knowing what love is. This is made apparent when taking into account how in love Romeo is with Rosaline in the beginning of the play and how completely he forgets her when he meets Juliet. He falls in love too easily and doesn't really understand what love is.

"Romeo and Juliet are just two rich kids who've always gotten every little thing they want. And now, they think they want each other."
"They're in love…" Mr. Stessman said, clutching his heart.
"They don't even know each other."
"It was love at first sight."
"It was 'Oh my God, he's so cute' at first sight… it's Shakespeare making fun of love."                                                                                                                          (Rowell, 41)

I liked that Rowell had her character make this observation. I agree with the observation. Now, the reference is kind of misleading. The prologue of Eleanor and Park opens in a very particular way and the fact that a Romeo and Juliet reference was made, I thought was foreshadowing for the end of the story (which I believed would be a reverse West Side Story). But alas, this was not the case. The only way I can understand the reference being made at all is if Rowell is trying to juxtapose Eleanor and Park with Romeo and Juliet. Where Romeo and Juliet were shallow, impulsive, and thought themselves in love, Eleanor and Park were deep, thoughtful, and actually were in love -  but the ending of the novel (which I won't give away just yet) made me question whether or not this comparison is true.

The other issue I had with the novel was the social/historical accuracy of the story. I don't profess to know much about the 1980's but I was a bit taken aback by how accepting everyone was of Park and his mother. I mean, for a majority of the book, everyone keeps mistaking Park for every other Asian ethnicity but Korean but that's the extent of his struggles with being ethnically diverse. This seems a bit simplistic and unrealistic to me. Especially since not many years before that the U.S was in the Korean war (like in the show MASH that they watched in Park's house) and years before that, Japanese Americans were put into internment camps because of Pearl Harbor. I live in New York, one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the U.S in 2015 and there's still racism and bigotry going on but Omaha, Nebraska in the 1980's is somehow more tolerant of diversity? I doubt it.

Continuing on this track, I also found it strange that Eleanor's relationship with DeNice and Beebi was completely accepted by the community. Racial tension was still prevalent in the 80's and Eleanor's only friends are black and from a completely different community than hers (as Rowell states the kids were bused in from other neighboring towns). Eleanor eats lunch with these girls but no one from her predominately (or even completely) white town oppose this friendship, especially in the middle of Nebraska? I don't know, maybe I'm over exaggerating the tension that existed during the time because I wasn't there myself.


In response to why Park was Korean and a bit about racial tension in Nebraska during the 1980's Rowell said this in her blog:

It was a really poor, really white neighborhood, near the airport. The kids who lived there, like me, were bussed to a high school in a black part of town, for integration... It was a really poor, really white neighborhood, near the airport. The kids who lived there, like me, were bussed to a high school in a black part of town, for integration... It’s not that everyone in our neighborhood was racist, but it was the kind of place where people still flew the Confederate Flag on their porches.I couldn’t figure out how anyone who wasn’t white could even survive in our neighborhood. I could barely survive in our neighborhood. My seat mate said that this kid grew up on his block, that his dad was a Vietnam War veteran. So Paul wasn’t exactly discriminated against in any classic, horrible way – that I observed – but his race was present, always. Like, there were so few Asian people in North Omaha at that time, people would always look at him twice.

I just feel that Rowell could have done a better job of showing this issue in Park's life. He seems self-conscious about his ethnicity but it seems to come from himself and not from his community. Rowell could have delved deeper into this issue. 

Finally, I also really hated the ending of this book which wasn't really an ending at all. I feel like this is becoming a trend with Teen Fiction - authors writings endings that just taper off and leave the reader feeling like they still don't know what happens. Did the boy get the girl or not? Are they together or not? Was their love mutual or not? I hate that. It's a personal opinion and other might disagree but I feel like most novel (unless they have a sequel) should have some sort of resolution (unless it's point is that in life things don't always resolve so neatly). I feel like Eleanor and Park focused so heavily on their romance that the reader being left wondering what happens at the end doesn't give the justice. I also feel disappointed that we don't find out what happens to Eleanor's family which was a huge part of Eleanor's story. There are way too many questions left at the end of the book and honestly, I felt as though the ending was a bit lazy. 

Overall though, I did really enjoy the book. I was invested in the characters and read the book in one day. The story line was engaging and but for the few problems listed above, I felt it was a great novel for teens about feeling different, the hardships of growing up, and falling in love. 

For those of you who have liked this book, please spread the word to your friends. I was recently made aware that this book had been banned (by a parents association with nothing better to do) in Minnesota because of cursing and sexual language. Honestly,  I don't think the characters in the novel curse or use sexual language any more than real life bullies in Facebook or any other social media do. And frankly, I think it's ridiculous that kids are exposed to most of these things in television, movies, and social media but as soon as a kid reads these same things in  library book suggested to them by their local librarian, it's a problem. 

Please read about this issue here and give me your own opinion on the matter. 

Thanks so much and keep reading.