Book #51 – Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

The summer reading list of Chesterfield Country, Virginia included 3 books that caused quite a stir with parents in 2016. One such book was Eleanor & Park, which was banned for being sexually explicit and containing “vile, vile, nasty language”. In fact, the state Senator even called for the librarians who had suggested the book to be fired. A committee was put together within the school board, PTA parents, and teachers read through the 3 books in full, and decided to keep the books on the list.

Eleanor & Park was originally published in 2013 and recounts the story of two teenagers slowly falling in love. The book also handles things like race, body image, bullying, domestic abuse, and whether Batman is a boring superhero. The book is set in the mid 1980s, in Omaha Nebraska and could honestly rival Romeo and Juliet for a teachable love story.

The book is set in the two voices of the teenage lovers, splitting the book between their lives and their evolving thoughts about each other. This allows for many characters to be shown in both the light of Park, who has lived in the neighborhood his whole life, and Eleanor, who has only moved in to the area that year. The two main characters are brought to life in such a way that I felt like I knew people like them in school. Rainbow Rowell does a wonderful job creating flawed individuals with plenty of character, enough that I was invested in their lives by the end of the book. As for the rest of the cast, they are less developed, but given enough background to make them interesting.

The plot honestly took on a lot. Not only is there a love story between two very different teenagers, there’s bullying and domestic abuse, and one of them is the only Asian in the entire Omaha school. Yet, with all of the complexities going on in the background of the book, it only builds the two characters as they struggle with their own identities, but also to trust the other with their own insecurities. Remember how I said this was a teachable rival to Romeo and Juliet? That’s because this love story is actually believable. Sorry, Shakespeare, I’ve never bought into your play.

Where this book lost me was the pop culture references. My 80s music is all billboard hits and hairband rock… and Enya. So, much of the music that Park and Eleanor listen to, I’ve probably not heard. I had the same problem with Perks of Being a Wallflower, actually. Also, for anyone that’s seen Supernatural, every time Park mentioned his mother’s Impala, I pictured it black. Still, I have enough to go on that I recognized movie references that were made, and comic book names. Which reminds me that I’ll eventually have to read and review Watchmen. In any case, the descriptions were pretty limited to anything that directly influenced Park or Eleanor, so there was no sweeping descriptions of the Omaha landscape. Honestly, that would probably have seemed out of place with the pacing of the book.

Overall, this was a pretty interesting love story. Much better than some of the love stories I’ve read for this List. (I’m looking at you, Nicholas Sparks). I’d recommend it to anyone that can handle the “vile, vile, nasty language” spewed by Eleanor’s step-dad.

She looked like art, and art wasn’t supposed to look nice; it was supposed to make you feel something – Rainbow Rowell

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